


Paying The Price

by Rrazz



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Character Death, Drama, F/F, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 10:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11781570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rrazz/pseuds/Rrazz
Summary: Shepard and her team have survived the trip through the Omega 4 relay. But the real battle has only just begun.  Spoilers for ME2 ending. Rated T for violent content and possible swearing in later chapters





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> First off, usual disclaimer stuff. I don't own Mass Effect or any of it's related property's...and i make no money from this.
> 
> Fair warning, this story contains Major spoilers for the ending of Mass Effect 2, I doubt that's much of a problem no a day's but I figure it still best to mention it in case.

Shepard groaned as she dragged her suddenly heavy body back to her feet, her hands swiftly darted out and managed to find a handhold on the back of a nearby chair as she almost collapsed a second later. "The hell happened?" She coughed, her eyes weren't able to focus properly, and she could taste blood, that wasn't good.

"Everyone alright?" She spoke again when no one responded.

"Think I broke a rib." She heard Joker groan. "All of them." He corrected a moment later, despite being in worse shape, or so Melina believed, the crimson haired soldier placed a reassuring hand on the pilots shoulder, or tried to, thanks to her vision still being screwed she missed the first time.

A few moments of groaning and questions passed, and it was soon revealed the ship was, at least for now, inoperable. "We all knew this could be a one way trip." Miranda, having finally regained her composure, said quietly, despite her normally iron resolve, and having been warning the crew of this from the start, even she sounded disheartened by the thought.

"Either way, were here to destroy the Collector base, no matter the cost." Shepard stated as a hand moved to rub her eyes in a vain attempt to focus them. After the hectic battle, and the even worse crash landing, she was considering them lucky to even still be alive.

A pang of fear rolled through her as she considered the situation. Sure, they on the bridge had been lucky, but everyone else was still on other decks. How had they fared?

Ignoring the rest of the conversation, she quietly moved past Miranda and set off towards the elevator. God she hoped it still worked.

* * *

Whether by luck, or sheer stubbornness. Everyone aboard was still alive, a bit beat up, but alive none the less.

"Meet in the briefing room." She told each in turn before moving on. Once she'd rounded all of them up and made it there herself, it came time to discuss how exactly they were going to accomplish the immense task set out before them.

Everyone was busy preparing weapons and equipment when Melina entered, she didn't stop them, and instead she simply approached the briefing table and rested her hands heavily on its surface. Once all eyes were on her, she cleared her throat and spoke. "This isn't how we planned this mission, but this is where were at."

Her gaze slowly shifted from person to person, taking in each face and burning them into her memory forever. Not everyone would be going home, hell she didn't expect any of them to make it out alive. "We can't worry about whether the Normandy can get us home…We came here to stop the Collectors. And that means coming up with a plan on how to take out this station."

With a slight gesture, EDI activated and began filling them in on where to target. "You should be able to overload their critical control systems if you get to the control center, here." Melina's eyes narrowed slightly as a schematic flickered into view, and a location on the far side of the station was marked as their goal, her mouth opened to speak, though it was Jacob that spoke first.

"That means going through the heart of the station. Right past this massive energy signature." Tapping commands into his Omni-tool the schematic they were looking at changed, a different location highlighting.

"That's the central chamber…If the crew or any of the colonists are still alive, then chances are that's where they are." That was both a blessing, and a curse in her mind. On one hand, if they could find the crew before it was too late, then they stood a chance of getting everyone out in one piece. But at the same time, who knew how many enemies stood between them, and whoever might have still been alive.

The schematic changed again, as Jacob outlined two possible paths and suggested splitting up. "No good, both routes are blocked." Miranda cut him off, and Shepard cursed silently as she scanned the hologram and picked out a different method.

"There." She indicated the plan, the doors only opened from the other side, but a ventilation shaft. "Someone could sneak through there and open the doors." An argument swiftly broke out following this, as several offered to do it, while others either shot them down or tried to beat them to the punch.

Finally, Shepard raised a hand, somehow this alone managed to silence the room. "Tail…You're up." She said after a moment, several mumbled comments followed, though she tuned them out. Tail was the best candidate, and the commander trusted the qurian with her life.

Next came the choice for who would go with which squad. Naturally another argument broke out, this time solely between Jack and Miranda, though again Shepard ended it before it got out of hand. "Garrus, can I trust you to lead the second team?" The turian nodded slightly.

"Grunt and Legion will come with me. The rest of you are with Garrus." She stated with finality, before setting off for the door. It wasn't the best plan, but they really didn't have time to worry. If this didn't work, they'd be dead anyway so it hardly mattered.

She halted however, before turning to face the rest of the squad. Much as she hated speeches, this was something she needed to get off her chest. "I don't know what were going to find in there…But it's not going to be easy…We've lost good people. We may lose more."

Once again, all eyes were on her, but she didn't stop. Instead one hand swept up and brushed several locks of bright red hair from her pale blue eyes. "It doesn't matter how many the collectors have stolen. Thousands, hundreds of thousands…What matters, is not, one, more. That's what we can do today. We can stop them once and for all."

"I say we show them, on our turns." The commander paused to study each face again, before she turned away and set off towards the elevator once again.

* * *

As she entered her quarters, she spared a glance towards a mirror. Her red and black N7 armour was dented and buckled, dried blood stained the left shoulder and stomach where she'd taken a few hits, but luckily the injury's were long healed, and new injury's sustained from the crash weren't bad enough to slow her down.

Shaking her head slightly, Melina noted a bright orange scar on her left cheek, and one on her neck. Reminders of the reconstruction Cerberus had done to bring her back from the dead.

A sigh escaped her as she moved to the desk opposite the mirror and collected the dull crimson helmet resting on one edge, somehow it hadn't shaken lose and fallen to the floor. As she did so, her eyes fell upon another object still sitting in it's proper place, and Shepard froze.

Staring back at her was the smiling face of Liara. Her love from before, and after her death. The picture had been taken prior to the first Normandy's destruction, somehow it had survived and found its way back to her two years later.

Despite the need to move, Melina slowly righted her chair and collapsed onto it for a moment, her hand developed a mind of its own and plucked the picture from her desk and brought it closer to her face for inspection.

This was what she was fighting for. For all her bold words and actions, it wasn't the colonists; it wasn't to stop the reapers that she fought so hard. No, it was Liara that drove her to victory. No matter what happened, she wouldn't let anything happen to the asari. Whether she made it back or not didn't matter at this point, so long as the collectors were stopped and she knew her love would be safe.

Bitting her lip, the commander returned the picture to its original place. Before sliding the helmet over her head and locking it into place. One final glance was all she spared the still image, before she stood and scooped up the assault rifle she'd been carrying up from the floor and vanished from the room.


	2. Chapter Two

Shepard hesitated for a moment, before carefully dropping out of the airlock and to the ground below. Luckily it was only a few feet and her armour absorbed most of the impact.

She spared a glance over her shoulder, and winced as she examined the exterior of the Normandy. It was in bad shape, the crash alone had done a number on the lower decks, but the fight with the collectors had almost taken a layer of plating off it as well. "Even if they get the power back…I don't think she'll be flying again." Melina commented with a sigh, they knew this was a one way trip. But that didn't make the truth any easier to swallow.

A loud bang brought her back to reality, and the following tremor almost threw her off balance. Though she quickly regained her balance and turned her gaze to Grunt, whom had just landed next to her.

A metallic clank followed a second later as Legion hit the deck. Had the ship been properly docked, it would have been a simple matter of just walking out the airlock, but in this case they weren't safely docked, and that meant things were just that much harder.

Shepard scanned the area, noting nothing, she gave her two companions a nod, before a hand swept behind her and retrieved the rifle clipped to her back. "Were on the deck. Everyone else okay?"

A string of confirmations followed as each squad member responded. Good, everyone was ready to go. Once she was satisfied, the commander paused to ensure her rifle had a fresh clip, and it was in working condition, before sinking into a low crouch and pressing forwards, Grunt had a hard time copying her, but then again she didn't expect him to be stealthy, he was a krogan after all. And besides, the Collectors knew they were here already, so it hardly mattered.

"Where the hell is everyone?" Shepard commented after a few minutes of silence, so far they'd made it, by her guess a kilometre or two into the station, and nothing had happened, no collectors, no husks, nothing.

She wasn't sure which was worse, the tense silence. Or having a massive army standing between her and her goal.

At least the second option offered something interesting to do…

"Shepard, we've got a problem." Tali's voice broke into her thoughts. "There seems to be some kind of, gate blocking the way." Melina cursed quietly, before breaking into a jog.

"Hold on. I'll see what I can do from my end." She tried to reassure the qurian, she didn't know why exactly, but something about the vent being blocked just put her on edge.

"Hurry. It's getting hot in here." Her pace increased again as a computer terminal came into view.

"Please be the right one." She repeated under her breath as she skidded to a halt and started pressing buttons somewhat randomly.

"Alert! Reinforcements incoming." Legions voice suddenly snapped from behind, a second later it was followed by scattered rifle fire as he and Grunt tried to delay whatever was behind them.

"Come on, come on!" Melina cursed again as she finally hit on the right combination and heard the dull hiss of the hatch opening.

"That got it. Moving forwards." Tali confirmed, a sigh escaped Shepard as she spun on her heel to join the fight.

A second later she ducked as a volley struck the console and fired the controls, and almost took her head off at the same time. Ignoring the shower of sparks that rained down on her, Melina easily ducked behind a support beam and cast a glance around the side.

The collectors were everywhere. There had to be dozens of them! Shepard shivered and tightened the grip on her rifle. It didn't matter how many there were, they weren't going to stop that easily.

Peering around the side, she fired off several short bursts, before ducking back out of sight, an answering barrage chipping away several pieces of the beam. This wouldn't be easy,

"Encountering heavy resistance, nothing we can't handle." Garrus reported, though his voice was almost lost in the constant barking of rifles and pings of bullets hitting metal.

"Makes two of us." Shepard mumbled, before ducking out of cover long enough to fire off another, sustained burst. This time she took the time to aim properly and smiled as several collectors fell. Though where one died, it seemed five more were quick to dive in and join the fray.

Once again she was forced back into hiding. Though only long enough to replace the thermal clip in her rifle before leaning out to fire another burst. "This isn't working." She called out to her companions, neither of which responded.

Ducking under another barrage of fire, Shepard picked out a famillar, and worrying sight, namely one of the collectors calmly stepping into view, a distinct glow encasing his body. "Damn it!" She wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but usually it was followed by a lot of pain.

Clenching her teeth, she was proven right as a loud bang shook the ground beneath her, the impact knocking her rifle from her hands.

Shaking off the momentary disorientation, she left it for the moment, instead snatching her prize sniper rifle from her back and shouldering it. Regardless of what was powering up the collectors, they went down just the same.

Before she could line up the shot however, Legion beat her to it. The last she saw of Harbringer was his head exploding, before the glow vanished and the now lifeless corpse crumbled to the ground.

Shifting her aim, Melina instead picked out a different target, and with a loud crack, he too fell. "To, easy." She grunted, before chambering another round and slinging the gun over one shoulder. As much as she loved the massive rifle, the fact that she'd been forced to upgrade her armour or risk dislocating her shoulder with each shot wasn't pleasing. The payoff was worth the extra padding however.

Snatching up her assault rifle again, the commander ensured it wasn't damaged from the fall and swiftly resumed firing almost blindly into the collector lines. With Harbinger dead, the assault seemed to waver and lessen. Without their leader it seemed they were falling back.

"Were at the door." Garrus's voice filled her ears again, and Shepard nodded to her squad.

"Lets move!" Once the last few collectors were dealt with, she easily broke into a run towards the door.

"Another hatch is blocking the way. I can't open this one either." Tali warned her, and Melina silently cursed the poor design choice, not that anyone should be crawling around in the vents, but it made things much more difficult.

Spotting another terminal, she skidded to a halt and set to work copying her earlier attempts to open it. "Damn it!" The code was different, that made things awkward.

"I'm burning up in here! Hurry!" Several more curses escaped Shepard as she continued typing in random commands. Nothing was working, if she didn't get it open soon…

As if on cue, the sound of rifle fire picked up in the corridor behind her. "For god's sake!" With a savage growl, she slammed her fist into the terminal, and almost laughed as the light clicked green and the hatch opened.

With Tali safe, Shepard whipped around to join the fight. Only to receive a powerful biotic blast to the chest and slam into the terminal a second later.

Gasping as the impact sucked the air out of her lungs, she shook her head and tried to scramble back to her feet.

To late however, she spotted the collector approaching, it's rifle aimed squarely at her head. Still disoriented from the attack, Melina knew she wouldn't get her gun up in time.

Before it could finish the job however. A familiar figure materialized behind it. Before the collector could act, Kasumi's pistol splattered it's brains all over the wall, and to her disgust, on Shepard's armour as well.

"The hell are you doing here?" Melina asked as she accepted the thief's hand and dragged herself back to her feet. "Thanks." Kasumi simply offered a nod, before vanishing as quickly as she appeared.

Melina knew she'd sent everyone save Grunt and Legion with Garrus, though it didn't surprise her that not everyone was following her orders to the letter. And considering she'd be dead otherwise, it wasn't something she'd argue about.

A quick check reassured her that despite the energy blast, her armour wasn't damage, not anymore then usual at least. So she wasn't out of the fight yet. Her gaze shifted back to the battle, which was far from over.

Legion was behind cover a few meters away, perfectly still and nigh invisible save for the occasional flash and loud crack as he fired a shot from his rifle and downed another collector.

Grunt had, at some point charged into the fray and what wasn't torn to pieces by his shotgun was swiftly crushed under fist or foot, or in some cases he simply slammed head first into something and pulverized the bones without even the slightest hint of damage in return.

The newly revealed Kasumi was easily dancing between targets, vanishing one moment and reappearing the next to end someone's life with a spine snapping kick or well aimed shot to the head.

Spying the door across the field, Shepard wasted no time directing everyone to it and attempting to reach it herself. "Get to the door!" She shouted over the gunfire, though it hardly mattered, everyone knew where to go, and were doing their best to reach it.

Narrowly avoiding getting hit several times, Melina finally breathed a sigh of relief as her shoulder slammed into the thick door. While it wasn't open, at least she was here and ready. "Ready when you are Tali." She called out, before ducking behind another support beam to avoid yet another barrage of collector fire.

"Working on it, just a few more seconds." Legion skidded to a halt next to her, his rifle firing wildly, yet still somehow each round hit a target with perfect precision. For one brief moment, Melina felt a pang of jealousy towards the geth. Though it instantly vanished as she focused on making her own shots count.

Grunt finally gave up his rampage and stumbled over as well. Shepard winced as she noted several wounds where his armour had been breeched, but he either didn't notice them, or simply didn't care.

Assuming Kasumi was present as well. Shepard simply focused on holding the line until the door opened a minute later.

"Go!" She nodded towards the door, and despite a questioning glance, the rest of the squad swiftly backed through the door, Melina right behind them, her rifle still blazing as she cut down anyone stupid enough to try and follow.

Glancing over her shoulder once she had the safety of the doorframe between her and the enemy, she breathed a sigh of relief to see the others all present and accounted for. Though the victory was short lived.

"Something's wrong, the door isn't closing!" Tali cried as she fought to hack the door controls and shut it again. Knowing she was exposed, Shepard moved forwards and sunk into a crouch next to the qurian, her rifle once again flaring as she tried to cover her companion.

Melina cursed when she heard the rifle click empty, and desperately tried to eject the spent clip.

As she did so however, her attention faltered, a costly mistake.

A second later a loud boom deafened the commander and the resulting blast knocked her off her feet, and back several meters. For a moment, she was sure she'd been hit, and likely died again.

Though as the white light that blinded her began to fade, she found herself face to face with Garrus, who was saying something she couldn't hear, the explosion having left her ears ringing.

"You okay?" The sniper asked for the fourth time, finally Shepard heard him.

"I will be." She coughed, a hand shifting to her ribs as shock gave way to pain. "What the hell was that?"

"Rocket round I think." Melina accepted the turian's offered hand and shakily stumbled back to her feet. "Luckily you were far enough back."

The commander was in the process of nodding, when a thought occurred to her. Forcing her aching limbs to move, she pushed Garrus aside and stumbled back to the thankfully closed door, several members of the squad were watching it for signs of it reopening, however, Thane and Samara were distracted by something to one side.

They swiftly withdrew as Shepard approached and fell to her knees next to the still form of Tali. Ignoring what the others had to say, she gently rested a hand on the qurian's shoulder and tilted her head slightly. "Tali?" No response. Shepard's breath caught in her throat as she examined her friend. Her visor was cracked, possibly breached, and her enviro-suit was scourched and blackened in a few places.

"Tali!" She called her name again, the only response was a slight flexing of her hand. Which the commander swiftly gripped with her own. "Stay with me!" Tears began to sting her eyes as she squeezed her hand. She could barely hear the gasps through Tali's visor, see the very slight movements of her chest. She was still alive, but barely. And she doubted for long.

With her free hand, she began punching in the commands on her Omni-tool and gave her a dose of Medi-gel. It would either stablize her. or at least ease the pain. "Stay with me." She said more urgently, the tears now trailing down her cheeks as she struggled to think of a better way to help Tali. "Someone do something!" She shouted, her head snapping around to focus on the rest of the team. Most fidgeted uncomfortably, some shrugged, powerless to help, Garrus simply looked away, the pain in his expression alone tearing at Shepard's already shattered heart.

"Don't die on me! Please!" Melina's gaze snapped back to Tali, who's already ragged breaths were growing shallower by the second. The grip on the commanders hand was beginning to weaken as well.


	3. Chapter Three

The squad was silent for the next few minutes as Melina continued to grip Tali's hand tightly and plead with her not to die. It was futile, but she refused to let go and no one was game enough to approach and try to pull her away.

The only one that had dared move closer had been Mordin, and that was only because he was determined to try and help. Sadly even his medical knowledge wasn't going to help save the qurian. Once he'd confirmed this, he and the others, save Garrus had retreated to a safe distance and did their best to busy themselves.

The sniper had kept close by, he'd known Tali as long as the commander, and seeing her slowing fading away was no easier on him then it was on her, though he was better at hiding it then Shepard.

Melina ignored the murmured conversations behind her, tuned out the frantic shouting that soon followed as the squad discovered they'd somehow stumbled across the crew and desperately tried to break them out of the strange, cocoon-like holding cells. Even after they'd saved the crew and were ensuring everyone was alive and well, Shepard was still clinging tightly to her friend.

She knew it was too late. Despite everything, Tali had stopped breathing several minutes ago. And even another jolt of medi-gel had done nothing. "I'm sorry…" She whispered, her voice cracking as another wave of tears blurred her vision and started to trail down her cheeks. "Should never have brought you here…" This was all her fault, she'd asked Tali to come, hell she'd more or less dragged her along. And look where she was now.

What had first looked bad, had proven even worse when Mordin had joined her. He'd been able to scan her body with his omni-tool and revealed that beyond the damages to her suit, beneath wasn't much better.

Obviously the rocket had hit almost directly, as Tali had several broken ribs, internal organs were damaged, and Mordin had speculated that she likely had blood flooding her lungs, better she die quickly, then suffer slowly as she would if they tried to save her. Nothing they did at this point would have prevented the inevitable.

So she'd let her go. Melina had simply stopped trying to help and simply held her hand while the qurian's life faded away. She couldn't help but replay the memories she'd held dear as each second ticked by.

Shepard's hand slowly closed into a fist as she reluctantly released the qurian's hand and shakily stood. After taking a deep breath, she tugged her helmet off and wiped the tears from her face. This was the first time she'd broken down in front of anyone. She hated showing emotions like this in front of others, a sign of weakness she always considered it.

Even when she'd been forced to leave Ashley behind on Virmire, she'd kept an iron resolve until they'd returned to the Normandy, only then; once she was safely locked away in her quarters did she let her grief out.

Here though, it had happened so fast, so suddenly, she didn't have the chance to put on the mask and pretend she was fine. Gritting her teeth slightly, she decided to simply push on; this was the price she'd have to pay. They all knew it was a suicide mission, she just didn't expect it to happen so swiftly, or to someone she cared so greatly about.

Turning to face the squad, she was only briefly surprised to note they'd almost tripled in number, the Normandy's crew among them as well as a few of the surviving colonists.

Great, now she felt even worse about her breakdown, everyone had seen it…

Shaking the thought off, she took another deep steadying breath, and tucked her helmet under one arm. Refusing to even glance over her shoulder, she approached the squad and tried to veil her sorrow behind a mask of authority. Regardless of what happened, she was still in charge.

She managed to force a smile as several familiar faces appeared out of the group, though it was short lived. This would present a problem. "We can't take the crew with us." She sighed after a moment, the realization setting in. "No offense, but you'll slow us down to much, and we don't have enough guns to go around."

"Commander, we have enough systems back online to do a pickup…However we'll have to land a ways back from you're current position." Melina hesitated for a moment, her thoughts only briefly being interrupted by Miranda complaining they couldn't turn back.

"We can't go back now, but you'll never make it through alone." She nodded towards Thane. "Go with them; make sure they get back safely." The drell nodded, and was in the process of relaying orders, when Shepard grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

"Take Tali with you." She said quietly. "I know she's…Gone. But I can't just, leave her here." Thane hesitated for a few moments, before agreeing.

"Thank you." Shepard spared Tali's body one final glance, before turning away and focusing on the squad once again. "Joker, can you get a fix on our current location?" the crew had mentioned the tubes that hung overhead, and their grisly purpose.

"All those tubes lead into a control room above you…The main route is blocked by a security door, but there's another path that goes around it."

"I cannot recommend that way. It's overrun with seeker swarms, Mordins countermeasure won't work against so many." EDI pitched in, dashing the plan before they even started.

"There's got to be a way through them…" Melina's eyes darted about for a moment, before settling on Samara. "What about biotics? Could we create a field to keep them away from us?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't be able to protect everyone." Shepard nodded slightly; even a small chance was better then nothing.

"I could do it too…Theoretically any biotic could." Miranda chipped in, resulting in a sigh from both the commander, and Jack. She was always so damned eager to jump in and take charge, it was getting on both of their nerves.

"Samara and I will lead a small team through the swarm…The rest of you will form a diversion and hit the front door." Melina stated after a moment, though that led to another problem. Who'd lead the second team?

She spared the group a glance, picking out the potential candidates. Jack was no good, she wasn't much of a leader. Miranda had leadership talents, but quite frankly a good percent of the crew didn't trust her, and likely would disobey just to get her back up.

Garrus was a possibility, but something told her otherwise, she wanted him at her side this time. Maybe it was Tali's death making her panic, the thought of losing another friend in this mess…

"Jacob, you'll lead the diversion." She finally stated, and surprisingly, no one argued. He wasn't much better then Miranda, being Cerberus and all, but at the same time, he'd proven himself to the rest of the crew, she knew he wouldn't let them down.

A swift salute and reassurance followed her announcement. And Shepard smiled slightly as she glanced about the group. She would have preferred to go alone, not risk anyone else with the seekers, but that was impossible. "Mordin, Garrus, you two will be with me and Samara. The rest will go with Jacob. Clear?" Everyone nodded.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Thane carefully scooping up Tali's body, she hastily shifted her gaze away; no one spoke for the moment.

"Let's go!" Shepard called out once she'd composed herself. And a moment later the two teams split up and started towards their respective path

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it wrong to feel emotions from your own fanfictions? Cause damn its hurting rereading some of these old fics of mine...hurt a lot just writing them back in the day too...


	4. Chapter Four

Shepard couldn't help but cringe as she pulled her helmet back down over her head and secured the clamps, she hated wearing a helmet, it was always uncomfortable and annoying.

Having banished the sorrow at Tali's loss to the back of her mind, she now had a different concern to worry about.

Namely the tunnel full of seeker swarms, and the fact they had to go through it.

Already Samara was preparing herself for the task ahead, the familiar blue glow beginning to envelop her body as she began tapping into her biotics. Despite Melina's confidence in the asari, she knew that this wouldn't be easy, they had little idea as to how long the tunnel was, or even if the barrier Samara planned to make would even work.

If it didn't, they sure as well wouldn't have time to worry. Their had to be millions of seekers between them and the other side. "You sure you want to do this?" She found herself mumbling under her breath, of course she wanted to do it, but after a moment, she spun on her heel and focused on the trio of soldiers behind her. "The distraction would be a lot safer then this…I'm not going to force anyone to come with me."

Samara didn't stop; instead she simply offered a nod. "I doubt you can hold the barrier alone commander." Melina couldn't help but smile beneath her helmet, a gesture she was surprised to see the asari return, even though she couldn't see much of Shepard's face.

"Don't start getting soft on my commander. We've been through worse." Garrus replied, not bothering to look at her as he finished toying with his assault rifle.

Mordin, simply said nothing for the first time since, ever as far as Shepard could recall, though it was clear by the determined expression that he wasn't about to turn back either.

"One wrong move, and were all dead. Just keep that in mind." She offered as a final warning, before shouldering her own rifle and focusing on the tunnel ahead. "When you're ready Samara."

With a deep breath, the justicar stretched her arms out, and without pause a bubble of energy shimmered into life around her. Shepard nodded slightly as she and the others carefully stepped inside. They could see, and she presumed shoot out of it. And by the same token, they likely could be seen, and shot from outside.

Regardless, its task was to stop them being devoured by the seekers. So if it did that, the rest would be a piece of cake.

Melina spared Samara one last glance, before slowing moving forwards, taking care to never reach the edge of the barrier. The only thing she could do now was advance, and pray the asari wouldn't falter, this would likely drain most of her energy before long.

They would need to move fast, but at the same time, going to quickly would likely lead to ambushes, and that would make things so much worse. Gripping her rifle tightly, Shepard lead the squad forwards, pausing at each point of cover to examine the path ahead before stepping past the low wall or support beam. "I don't like this…" She mumbled, her gaze casting about nervously as she noted past the swarms of insect creatures trying to force their way past the barrier, the many different perches and high up vantage points.

All it would take is a sniper in the right place…

Her search was interrupted a second later, as a sudden burst of pain flared up just behind her eyes, and almost forced the commander down on one knee, though she managed to stumble towards a pillar and slam her back into it's rough surface.

"Shepard!" Garrus' voice was suddenly distant, as though he were miles away, though she could tell he was only a few paces at best.

The rest of his words were drowned out as a cold voice made it self heard, no, felt it was speaking directly into her mind, not her ears. The voice made her shiver as though icy claws had been abruptly dragged down her spine. "I know you can feel this." It growled, and Shepard felt the pain worsen for a moment, before suddenly vanishing as quickly as it had come, leaving the former spectre gasping for breath, one hand clutching her helmet.

"What's wrong?" Garrus' voice suddenly assaulted her ears once again, this time coming through loud and clear, painfully so.

"N-Nothing…I don't know what that was." She managed to respond, her voice betraying her confusion. "It's gone now." Shepard doubted that, but still, she couldn't have the squad worrying about her at a time like this.

Shouldering her rifle once again, she pushed away from the pillar and started to creep forwards, her eyes returning to the catwalks and alcoves above them. "Perfect spot for an ambush…Watch yourselves."

Naturally, this led to a sniper round striking a support beam less then a foot away from Shepard's head the second she finished speaking. Cursing, the commander and her team ducked for cover, somehow avoiding the following shots.

Before Melina had time to react, she picked out the distinct crunching of footsteps on the strange surface of the base, and the fluttering of the collector's wings as they descended from their vantage points.

Sparing a quick glance over the low wall she was crouched behind, Shepard noted at least a dozen of them had arrived and were swiftly ducking out of sight as well. They weren't stupid; they'd picked a spot that afforded them a decent amount of cover as well.

"Assuming direct control.' The commander winced as a dull ache suddenly spiked inside her head again. That same voice clawed at her mind once again.

Forcing herself to ignore the pain, she hauled herself up enough to peer over the wall once again, and noted a collector bearing that strange glow. They same one she'd encountered on Horizion, the collector ship, and now here. What the hell did that mean?

Before she could act, the glowing collector fired a strange yellow orb in her direction. Before she could duck it struck her hard in the chest and set her back a few paces. Shepard had little idea as to what the collector used for a weapon, but it packed a very nasty punch.

This was followed by a burst of rifle fire as the others took advantage of the newly exposed commander. Rounds pinged off her shield and knocked her back another step.

A moment later, she winced as a round pinged off her armour, followed a heartbeat later by several more. "No shields!" she cursed, before diving forwards and sliding back behind the wall.

She knew at least one round had gotten through, the dull throbbing in her side proved that, but she ignored it for now, instead, the commander waited until her shields flickered back into life, and took the opportunity to return fire.

Her attempts to fight back were constantly stalled by harbinger however; every time she lingered out of cover for more then a second, another of the strange projectiles was fired her way. Some simply flared her shields, others however sent her stumbling backwards, dizzy and disoriented for a few moments.

"If I must tear you apart Shepard, I will." The voice droned in her head once again, making her wince. Rising to one knee for a moment, she fired another burst towards the glowing collector, and finally saw its barrier flare and die. A second later a loud crack signalled the end of harbinger as a sniper round tore through his skull.

Melina knew that wasn't the end, the throbbing headache hadn't subsided fully, only a little. But even that was better then nothing. And without the heavy weapons of their leader, the others would be much easier to deal with.

The problem still remained however, they were outnumbered, and time wasn't on there side. She had to think of something fast to end the fight.

"Hell. Coving fire!" She shouted after a moment, before leaping over the wall and breaking into a sprint straight towards the remaining collectors.

A round struck her leg, and caused the commander to stumble, though she kept jogging and managed to slide into place behind a pillar closer to the enemy.

Taking a deep breath, her fingers idly tapped in a brief command on the keypad that controlled her rifles systems. A few presses later, and the plates along it's side and the grip slowly gained a crimson glow.

Without pause, she spun around and fired blindly into the aliens, each round bursting into flames on impact.

Despite taking a few hits in response, Shepard managed to kill most in a single volley. Before squeezing the second trigger and firing a grenade that finished off the rest in a blinding flash.

As the rest of the squad moved up, she simply replaced the thermal clip and continued to advance, the ache in her leg and side forgotten for the time being, she'd suffered worse in the past.

"That was stupid. But at least it worked." She commented as she spared a glance over her shoulder to ensure everyone else was still alive. Aside from Garrus appearing to have a slight limp. If it was bothering him though, he kept it well hidden.

They continued forwards, and aside from an occasional report from Jacob to keep them in the loop, and the seeker swarms buzzing around outside the barrier, an eerie silence descended over the advancing team.

The constant throbbing ache was still there, and Shepard couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her, though everywhere she looked was met with nothing. The silence was almost unnerving.

They didn't have long to wait before the quiet was shattered by a terrifying scream. Melina felt her hands tremble at the inhuman cry; it was a sound that had haunted her dreams for months now.

The sound of a husk. The skeletal creatures that the reapers employed as their shock troopers, swarms of them could be slaughtered and they would just make more. The real problem was being on the receiving end of there attack. Which was exactly where they were now.

With no cover to speak of, the squad simply dug their heels in and prepared for the onslaught.

"Don't let the bastards through the barrier!" Garrus growled as he began firing blindly into the approaching horde, aiming wasn't necessary, there was hundreds of the monsters rushing them. And Shepard had a feeling they weren't alone.

Following her friends advice, she squeezed the trigger of her own rifle and added her support to the battle. No matter where she aimed, she struck synthetic flesh and bone, each round, still aided by the incendiary ammo she'd keyed in earlier, easily ripped through the husks, though for each one that fell, another continued forwards at a frightening pace.

"Damn it! There's to many of them!" Shepard shouted as she ejected a spent clip and resumed firing. "This isn't working!"

"You have a better idea?" Garrus demanded as he fired a grenade into the zombie like creatures ranks and blasted a dozen into tiny pieces, the gap was filled a second later.

"If I did. Would I be standing here whining about it?" Melina countered, neither was angry at the other, though the commander was mad at herself for not having planned for this. Perhaps Samara could use her biotics to drive them back? No that would require dropping the barrier.

"We can't stay here!" The thought of the barrier dragged the situation back into focus. "Samara can't hold out forever like this!" Again she stopped to replace the thermal clip. She only had a few left…

Suddenly the gun was snatched out of her hand and sent clattering away. Looking up from her task, she was horrified to come face to face with a husk, it's teeth bares as it's clawed hands lashed out again and sent her stumbling back a pace.

One arm snapped up to protect herself, while the other made a grab for the pistol clipped to her waist.

This didn't help much, as the husks second swing hit her arm, and a sickening crack followed. Shepard couldn't stifle a yelp of pain as her arm was broken, and again she was forced back a step. She knew without looking she was on the edge of the barrier, one more step back and it would all be over…

Finally, a loud boom that left her ears ringing sounded, and the husk was sent flying backwards and crumpled to the ground a few steps away.

Breathing heavily, the commander brought the still smoking pistol up and resumed firing, each shot striking home and piercing one of the monsters skulls.

Garrus wasn't faring much better then her, his rifle was slung across his shoulders, presumably out of ammo, and he was using his fists to hold the husks at bay, if he could just have enough time to reload.

Mordin still held firm, his own pistol in hand as he easily dispatched the horde one target at a time. How exactly the doctor was doing better then them they couldn't say, after all he was the lightest when it came to firepower and equipment. But neither found any reason to argue.

Samara was the only one that wasn't fighting, and with good reason, if she stopped to fight, they'd be consumed by the seeker swarms in less then a heartbeat.

"Damn it! I'm out!" Shepard cursed as her pistol clicked empty. Returning it to her belt, she ripped her shotgun from it's position on her back and in one fluid motion unpacked it and brought it up into a firing position.

Luckily for her, the weapons were light weight and collapsed into a smaller, lighter package when not in use. Making it possible to haul several guns around at once without slowing the owner down to much.

That said, she really hated using the cumbersome weapon, and only carried a clip at best. It wouldn't last long, but at least she still had a gun for a few more seconds.

Their was still dozens of them though, hundreds probably. And what would follow after that? "This is, hopeless…" Shepard whispered quietly, her hands trembling as she instinctively blasted a husk, the shotgun easily cutting it in half. Chambering another round, she spared another glance across the battle field, Mordin was slowly being driven back, his hands busily fumbling with his gun.

Garrus was down to a pistol as well, though she knew that wouldn't last, her own hadn't. And Samara was powerless to do anything.

"Shepard! Were at the door, but were being overwhelmed! We won't last much longer if you don't get that door open!" Jacob's voice filled her ears once again, and she winced at just how desperate he sounded. "Game over…" She commented bitterly, her weapon and hands falling limply to her sides.

All this way, all that effort, to die like this? Her mind drifted back to Tali, her friend that had risked everything, and lost everything to help. Dead, and for what? So Shepard could lead her squad, no, her friends, family to their deaths like this?

"Hell no!" Melina growled as she tightened her grip on her last weapon and charged forwards, if she was going to die, then let it be fighting, not cowering in fear behind her friends. "Were almost to the door, just hold out a minute longer!" Shepard barked into her comm., before pausing to snatch up her discarded rifle, a second later she was charging once again.

The only sign she had that the rest of her squad was behind her, was the fact that the edge of the bubble grew no closer. Each step she took, the edge was always ten away.

Every time a husk stepped into her path, she fired, skulls were shattered, ribs pulverized, and spines shredded. And once she finally ran out of ammo, she simply started swinging the gun like a club, crushing the husks beneath arm and weapon. Even with one arm broken, she simply forced it into motion, likely damaging it further, but that didn't matter, she wouldn't, couldn't give up now.

Finally, the entrance was in sight, and Shepard paused for a moment to catch her breath. Only then did she realize her left arm was limp and useless, the abuse it had taken by her own actions finally pushing it to the breaking point.

Glancing over her shoulder, she could tell they were running out of time. Samara was beginning to stumble and waver, she couldn't hold out much longer.

"Here." Garrus tossed her a spare clip. And without pause she slung her shotgun and reloaded her pistol. "Make it count Shepard. Only one I can spare."

Nodding slightly, she offered a brief thanks, before turning to the asari. "Hold on, were almost there." She said softly, before making a beeline for the entrance.

Naturally, another wave of husks swarmed into the tunnel and waylaid them. This time though their numbers were fewer. That didn't make them less dangerous however.

"What the…Hell?" Shepard pondered when she spotted several of the husks glowed now. That couldn't be a good sign.

One of them rushed towards Mordin, and the commander easily dispatched it, and found out the hard way why they glowed.

As soon as the first shot struck it, the husk exploded with the force of a grenade. Knocking Shepard onto her back, and sending the salarian tumbling back several feet. The explosion, luckily took most of the husks with it.

"Fucking great, now they explode…" Melina coughed and groaned as she forced herself to stand, this was no time to take a break.

As she oriented herself and spun to continue fighting, her gaze fell upon Mordin, who she only then realized had been knocked backwards, out of the barrier. "No! Mordin!" Before she could even blink, the seeker swarms had descended and enveloped the doctor.

Knowing she couldn't shoot without hitting Mordin, she rushed forwards to help. Only to stop abruptly as Garrus's arms coiled around her waist and dragged her away from the edge. "NO, LET ME GO DAMN IT!" She screamed, her legs kicking wildly as she fought to break free and help.

"You can't help him! You'll die to!" The turian snapped, once or twice Shepard managed to strike him with her boots, but he remained steadfast and held her until the swarms dissipated, nothing remained of salarian.

"No, no no no no!" Melina finally stopped struggling, instead she fell limp in Garrus' arms, again, again someone died, and it was her fault!

Once he was sure she wouldn't rush forwards, the sniper reluctantly relaxed his grip and released the commander, though he swiftly grabbed her again when she started to collapse.

"Come on! We can't stop now!" He gently dragged Shepard back to her feet. After a moment of staring at the spot where Mordin had been, she nodded slightly, and pulled free.

"R-Right…Can't…S-Stop." She said slowly, her voice suddenly emotionless and monotone. Without pause, she spun around and broke into a run towards the door.

Samara and Garrus shared a concerned glance, before moving to catch up with her.

By some cruel twist of fate, nothing else impeded their progress, and the remaining trio reached the door without further incident.

"Were at the door controls. Stand by" Shepard mumbled into her comm. as Samara hacked the door and forced it to open.

As the massive doors slid apart, several stray rounds flashed past and struck the wall behind them, forcing Shepard to duck. Once it was open enough, the remaining members of her squad stumbled through and moved aside to avoid getting shot.

"Seal it! Now!" The commander snapped as she fired her pistol blindly past the squad to give them a chance.

Everyone was through, or it looked like it anyway. Zaeed was the last one through. And a second later the doors slammed shut.

Just afterwards, The mercenary backed into the wall directly opposite, and slid down into a sitting position. Melina was at his side a second later. Through a coughing fit, Zaeed managed to grin. "To damned many of them…Figured it would…End this way…" Another coughing fit wracked the injured mercenary, before he fell limp and still.

'Oh no you don't. You stubborn bastard you're not dying on me!" Shepard growled as she activated her Omni-tool and jolted him with a dose of medi-gel. Unlike Tali however, she saw him stir slightly, he wasn't dead, yet.

Standing up, she waved Miranda over. "Keep and eye on him."

"Shouldn't Mordin be patching him up? He is the do-"

"Mordin's DEAD!" Shepard abruptly yelled, causing the Cerberus agent to leap back a step, and everyone else to snap around to face them. "Seeker swarms overwhelmed him." She finished after a moment, her voice low and weak. "I screwed up and got him killed…"

"It wasn't you're fault commander, you didn't kno-" Garrus tried to defend the commander against herself, but was cut short by her whipping around to face him.

"Didn't know what? The fucking husk would explode? That it would knock him out of the barrier. That I would kill him!" Her voice slowly rose with each question. "No I didn't, but I shouldn't have fired with it being that close!"

Melina's gaze darted from face to face, gauging their reactions, however she hesitated when she failed to locate one of them. "Where's….Where's Jacob?" She demanded, her eyes scanning more urgently.

Miranda looked away, Kasumi simply angled her head downwards to hide her eyes behind her hood. No one else would meet her gaze either.

A second later, she spun around and slammed her fist into the wall, causing the metal to dent, and another crack as her knuckles broke from the impact, even with the heavy armour protecting her, it still wasn't enough.

"Tali…Jacob…Mordin…" She clicked her comm. on and struggled to get the words out. "Joker…Did you get the, crew?"

"Everyone's here, Kelly, Doctor Chakwas , everyone except…" Joker hesitated, and EDI finished for him.

"Thane hasn't arrived yet. The crew report he stayed behind to defend them from a collector attack."

Everyone was silent, unsure how to respond to the news. "And Thane." Melina said after a few moments, finishing her list of lost comrades. Still no one spoke, no sound at all broke the silence for a minute afterwards.

Finally, a dull pattering was heard as tears began to strike the ground and Shepards boots.


	5. Chapter Five

Shepard no longer cared what the team thought of her as another wave of tears ran down her face. She had little idea as to how long she'd been sitting there, back pressed to the wall next to the unconscious Zaeed, crying her eyes out.

Most of the squad was silent, or had the common sense to move a safe distance away so they could whisper quietly about the situation. No one was taking the losses well, but Melina was taking it the hardest.

She had no idea when her helmet had come off, or even why. Somewhere between now and finding out Thane hadn't survived the trip back to the ship. Shepard didn't care; it would have just gotten in the way if she kept it on.

Both hands had found their way to her face, half to stifle her sobbing, and half to try and wipe the tears from her face, which proved futile as they were swiftly replaced a second after.

"Quit beating yourself up Shepard…" Miranda spoke quietly, her normally arrogant attitude replaced by a surprisingly comforting demeanour that, had Melina not been distracted, would have been surprised by. "We all signed up for this, we knew there was likely no chance of coming back…"

The commander didn't respond, instead she simply shifted her knees up to her chest and rested her newly folded arms on them, her head soon placing itself on top of them. The tears had slowed somewhat as she was simply running out of tears to shed at this point.

"We wouldn't have signed up if we weren't prepared for the risks." Samara spoke up as well. "You can't blame yourself for their deaths."

Shepard was mildly surprised as the others nodded slightly. If anything, she'd expected at least Grunt to put her down for crying, accusing her of being weak or the like. Surprisingly though, even he bore a grim expression and agreed with the others.

After a few moments pause, and noting Melina still hadn't stood, Garrus stepped forward and offered a hand to help her up. "If it weren't for you commander. None of us would be here. And they would have already won."

"All I've done so far is get people killed…Maybe I'm not fit to lead." She responded bitterly, images of Tali, Mordin, and the last times she'd seen Ashley, Jacob and Thane flashed through her mind. All dead because of her poor leadership. She'd only continued doing so because everyone kept putting her on the spot, or no one else would believe in the threat enough to do anything about it.

Shepard hesitated, before accepting the hand and being pulled back to her feet. "We followed you this far commander. Why would we stop now?" Kasumi half asked, half answered for the rest of the squad. "A few people died yes…Good people, but that doesn't mean you're a bad leader. No one could have gotten us all into this mess and out again without some risk, or likely losing more then we have…"

The commander sighed heavily. Though she could feel reason starting to win through. Considering what they'd faced so far, it was a miracle she was still alive, let alone everyone else. "Name one person that could have done this any better." Garrus asked , his hand still firmly gripping hers. "That could have brought all of us together and made it this far."

A full minute ticked by as Shepard considered the question, and eventually she forced a smile. "Hell, I'm sure you could have done better." The turian chuckled, though both knew he wouldn't take the role of leadership again so easily. Considering what had happened the last time…

"Come on, quit you're crying, we've got a job to do, and I'm not about to trust the cheerleader with seeing us through it." Jack suddenly pitched in, earning a glare from Miranda, Shepard only smiled, a genuine one this time.

"Thanks…" She offered a slight nod to Garrus, before releasing his hand. "We can't give up now…The others would have died for nothing if we do." As much as she blamed herself, there was a time and a place for mourning and blame. This wasn't it.

Melina was briefly caught off guard when Garrus lightly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and offered a gentle squeeze. "Indeed. We still have a job to do." He said quietly, and Shepard found herself briefly, at ease, something about the half embrace just drained away the sorrow and instead gave her a brief flutter of hope. Maybe they could make it out of this after all.

"Best we not delay. It won't be long before the collectors attack again." Grunt growled, his hands tightening their grip on the shotgun he carried. "The others wouldn't want us giving in to grief at a time like this." Shepard quirked an eyebrow at the krogan for a moment funny how he said almost exactly what she was thinking. Any other time that would have worried her, but now it just made sense, they were all thinking the same thing. She paused for a moment, before nodding and breaking away from the sniper to grab her discarded rifle and, where was her helmet?

As if he knew, Garrus offered her the missing piece of armour. She nodded again, before slipping it on. "What's our next step?" Melina asked once the helmet was secure.

"There should be some platforms nearby that will take you to the main control room. From there you should be able to overload the systems and destroy the base." Shepard winced slightly as she pulled herself up onto the ledge and surveyed the area ahead of them. She could see a few of the strange floating platforms the collectors used on their ship, and beyond that a massive space that she couldn't see the end of. That wasn't her concern though. "We need to hurry."

She spared a glance over one shoulder as a loud beep drew everyone's attention, the controls for the door were blinking red as a warning. "There's more coming." Damn it that was the last thing they needed.

"Take a squad with you! The rest of us will hold here and buy you some time!" Miranda pitched in, causing Melina to wince again.

"No, we lost enough people already that would be suicide!" She responded, if anyone would be holding the line and dying to buy time, she would.

"We don't have time to discuss this! You can't get to the control room alone, but we can't leave an army of collectors at our back either." The Cerberus agent pressed the issue.

Finally, Shepard relented, they couldn't spend all their time arguing. "Alright…Garrus, Legion, you're with me, the rest of you hold the door." Zaeed was the only one that wasn't on his feet, but she had a feeling the mercenary was to damn stubborn to die, or miss out on the fight.

"Anything to say before we do this?" Miranda asked, and all eyes snapped around to focus on Melina. And she quietly gulped before sparing a glance over her shoulder to Garrus, whom was watching closely as well.

She really wasn't one for speeches, but she had to say something, after her breakdown, again, she really needed to prove she hadn't lost her will fight, or lead. Taking a deep breath, she simply spoke whatever came to mind, and hoped for the best. "The collectors…The reapers, their not a threat to us. Their a threat to everything, everyone. Those are the lives were fighting for, that's the scale. If we fail today…The galaxy is doomed."

The words sounded almost hypocritical to her mind. Here she was not five minutes ago sobbing and wishing it was over. And now she was standing here saying they had to fight, that giving up wasn't an option…Jeeze she really wished she listened to her own advice sometimes.

"It's been a long journey, and none of us are coming out without scars…" She hesitated for a moment, once again picturing the lives lost. She wouldn't be escaping this unscarred, that was for sure. "We win, or lose it all in the next few minutes…Make me proud, make yourselves proud." She finished, a smile forming as she examined the determined faces staring back at her. For all the grief and loss. She knew they'd get the job done, and somehow make it out of here alive.

"We won't let you down." Miranda abruptly saluted, something she'd only ever seen Jacob do, maybe it was a gesture of respect, or she was mocking the now dead soldier, either way it was appreciated.

"Don't worry about us. We've got the easy job." Grunt cocked his shotgun and spun to face the door.

The squad paused long enough to exchange ammo and ensure everyone was ready to go. Luckily a few members of the team had been smart enough to pack extra, and weren't stingy when it came to sharing.

"Couldn't have asked for a better squad." Melina mumbled as she turned around and set off for the platform that would take them to the control room.

Their was only one button on the control panel, so she assumed it was the right one. Upon pressing it however, nothing happened. "Great…Powers out?" She started tapping away at her Omni-tool. Maybe she could hack it or something.

"Warning: Reinforcements approaching!" Legion abruptly shouted, or, however it was he raised his voice. And fell into a crouch behind the low wall like raised section of the platform, his hands already snatching his assault rifle off his back and bringing it to bare on another platform that had floated in and docked with theirs. A dozen collectors and husks aboard.

"Next time. You're pushing the button." Shepard snapped, her eyes briefly flicking to Garrus before she ducked as well and slammed a thermal clip into her pistol. It being the first gun that came to hand.

The turian's laugh was cut short as he lifted his rifle and expertly removed a collector's head, whatever the stuff was that counted as their blood splattering those nearest to it.

Standing for a brief moment, Shepard fired another grenade, the rounds were supposed to disorient and stun whoever was caught in the blast. But Melina had modified her rifle to fire more, lethal rounds. Four husks were turned to ash and blood stains as a result of the weapon.

Without pause, she emptied a clip into a collector and ducked to eject the clip. Garrus was still firing away with his rifle, everywhere he shot, something died. Legion was still blindly firing as well, though thanks to his computerized brain, he never missed a shot.

Within moments the wave of attackers were annilihated and the squad was stepping onto the platform. "Ready?" She spared each soldier a glance, once they both nodded; she pressed the button on this platform, and stumbled when it suddenly lurched into motion.

As the platform carried them deeper into the station, Melina was able to pick out the chatter of rifle fire behind them, and turned to face the rapidly shrinking bastion they'd just left.

"They'll be fine commander." Garrus knew what she was thinking, and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know…But that doesn't mean I can't worry about them." The hand on her shoulder retreated, and Shepard found herself missing the contact, though she didn't say anything, instead she turned to face the direction they were heading once again. They had bigger things to worry about now.

Before they reached their goal however, the platform abruptly lurched and caused her to stumble forwards and sink to one knee, Legion seemed unaffected, and Garrus ended up hitting the ground, hard, before picking himself up once again. "What happened?" He demanded, eyes scanning the area for signs of attack.

Before anyone could answer, a loud clang sounded, as another platform slammed into their own and locked in place. Closely followed by a second on the other side. The loud wailing of husks and the chattering whispers of collectors greeted the brief silence that followed.

"Get to cover NOW!" Shepard barked, before dashing forwards and sliding into place behind the same raised section they'd used before.

"Direct intervention is necessary." She tensed slightly as that cold voice entered her mind again. The same ache returning. Gripping her rifle, she swung around the edge of the wall and fired a quick burst into the now glowing collector, and gulped when the bullets pinged off a biotic barrier, much stronger then the previous one.

"This hurts you." The voice growled again, and Shepard winced as the pain in her head suddenly intensified to the point of stars bursting in front of her eyes. Shaking her head, she managed to regain her vision just in time to get struck in the chest by another of the glowing projectiles, this one instantly fried her shield, and her armour began to crackle as flames coiled up her arms.

Panic set in as she madly tried to pat the flames down and stop it from spreading, her concentration lapse costing her as she stumbled out of cover and was hit hard by another collector, the rounds easily pierced her armour, though she managed to duck behind cover before any hit a vital area.

Glancing across the wall, she spotted Garrus, still firing away and appearing unscathed, lucky bastard, and Legion, whom was firing one handed, the other arm appeared bent out of shape and broken, though naturally the geth didn't seem bothered at all by the damages.

Once the familiar blue flicker danced across her vision, the indication that her shields had snapped back on, she resumed firing, this time taking care to watch out for Harbinger and the strange weapon he used.

Husks charged forwards and were swiftly mowed down under the trio's fire, but the collectors were smarter, sticking to cover and only moving while others suppressed and kept the teams head down. Though it only lasted for a few moments, as Shepard and her companions began returning the favour, one firing until they drew the attention of the enemy, then the others would open fire and cut down the distracted collectors.

Numerous times Shepard's shields would flare and die and she'd be forced back into cover, though that didn't stop her for long.

Just as things were shifting in the teams favour, a third platform clanged into place. And another wave of husks rushed into their line of fire. Several of which carried the tell tail glow of the suicide bomber-like ones.

"Shoot those ones first!" Shepard called out, knowing what they could do, after all it was them that killed Mordin.

"Give in Shepard…You cannot win this fight." Melina stumbled, her aiming shifting away from the husks for a moment as she clutched at her head, the voice was getting stronger, or maybe it was simply closer now.

Before she could duck, a loud howl tore at her ears. And a second later she was hit square in the chest by something solid and knocked back another pace. As her vision clared from the flare of pain, she spotted a pale blue fluid was now splattered across her armour.

"Scion!" Garrus shouted, his aim shifting as two of the lumbering beasts stepped into view and fired randomly with their own weapons. Shepard was quick to duck behind cover once again, her aim still solely focused on taking out the exploding ones, the last thing they needed was one of them getting close.

Luckily they were few and far between, and had a nasty habit of taking whole squads of husks with them upon exploding.

Within moments, the majority were dead, but they still had the scions to deal with. Rapidly tapping keys on the side of her gun, the red glow gave way to a deep blow, and Melina resumed firing. Her rounds now easily ripping through the barriers, though doing little damage to the armour beneath.

Luckily she didn't need to worry about doing the damage. As soon as the barriers failed, Legion and Garrus easily finished the job.

After a few moments, the platform abruptly started moving again, and again, both Shepard and Garrus hid the floor hard, and were left grumbling quietly as it finally arrived at the next platform.

"This is it…All the tubes lead to this spot." Melina mused quietly as she studied the area ahead of them, a low tunnel obstructed her vision. A icy dread settled in the pit of her stomach, and she shivered. Her eyes hastily averting to ensure she wasn't bleeding to badly from the earlier shots. Nothing major and nothing a dose of medi-gel wouldn't fix.

"All the tubes are feeding into some kind of super structure. It is emitting both organic and non-organic signatures." That didn't sound good. "Whatever it is. It must be massive." Shepard shivered again, her hands clenching to the point that her rifle creaked under the strain as the structure came into view.

"If my readings are correct…The super structure…Is a reaper!" Shepard cringed as the platform slowly came to a halt, and all three of the soldiers tilted their heads back to examine the massive shape hanging suspended above them.

"Not just any reaper…A human reaper." Shepard gasped, her jaw falling open as she stumbled back a step.

Staring eerily back at her, was a humanoid shape. Obviously incomplete as it was only a skeleton at best, hell it looked like a giant husk in a way. The skull's mouth hung open, displaying cruel looking teeth that were easily double the size of her, it's eyes lacked any form of life, or she assumed if it was powered up they'd glow, but luckily the sockets appeared empty and lifeless.

Clawed fingers swayed slightly in the minute air that swept through the station. And as she examined it further, the commander breathed a sigh of relief to see it wasn't finished. Everything below the torso was missing, aside from it's spine that extended away into nothing, and strange metallic ribs that encased what was likely the main components of the beast. Thankfully the main armour and *skin* hadn't been attached yet, meaning it would be easy, or so she hoped, to bring it down.

"The collectors must have processed tens of thousands of humans...Significantly more will be required to complete the reaper."

"That thing is an abomination…How do we destroy it?" She demanded, EDI instantly responded, likely suspecting the question long before.

"The tubes injecting the fluid into the reaper are a structural weak point…Destroying them would cause the supports to collapse, and the reaper to fall." Shepard slowly advanced to the edge of the platform, and peered down into the gloom below. It had to be a few hundred feet or more. It would probably shatter on impact.

"Shepard, we got company!" Garrus warned, his rifle already discharging as another platform, presumably full of collectors slammed into place next to their own.

"Got it. We got some old friends to take out first though…" Melina nodded slightly as she spared the glowing red tubes either side of the reapers head a glance. What would it take to break them? Perhaps her rifle would work, or maybe they'd need something bigger…

A bullet struck the wall next to her, and forced her behind cover. The reaper would have to wait a minute…


	6. Chapter Six

Shepard cursed quietly as she slammed a fresh clip into her rifle and resumed firing The blasted collectors were using everything they had to stop them from destroying the reaper. Why this one was so important to them was beyond her, but she really didn't care for the details.

'Garrus! Hit the tubes!" She called out, knowing her rifle wouldn't be any good from this distance, she simply focused on holding back the collectors, husks and whatever else chose to rush them.

Between her and Legion, nothing was able to get close. Though that didn't mean they won hands down either. Several bullets pinged off Shepard's armour and she noted once or twice Legion would spark and stumble. Though unlike his kin she'd slain a hundred times before, he was able to shrug off minor wounds and even repair those that required it. If only temporarily to ensure no major system damage was received.

Ignoring the damages to her armour, Melina waited for her shields yet again, before rising up and cutting down another wave of husks with a well aimed grenade. This was getting almost predictable. The bastards just wouldn't, stop. A dozen fell and a dozen more rushed in.

Replacing the clip, Shepard resumed firing, this was getting almost boring, fire, duck reload, fire, duck, reload, but that didn't make any difference to the situation. She couldn't let her guard down now.

Where the hell were all these things coming from anyway? She hadn't seen another platform slide into place, but the collectors seemed endless. Every time she blasted one, another was their ready to start shooting.

Gritting her teeth as another round pierced her armour and a sharp lance of pain swept up her arm, she ducked behind the wall again and waited for her shields to recover. "Damn it!" A quick glance confirmed one of the four tubes had been shattered, though unsurprisingly, a series of metal plates had slammed down over the tubes, rendering them impervious to attack for the time being.

Shepard frowned slightly as her shields flickered back into life, a quick glance at her Omni-tool confirmed what she had seen. The shield was weaker then normal. Glancing downwards, she noted a few holes in her armour, and a few bloodstains that didn't belong to a fallen friend or foe, she'd been hit sure. But it looked like her armour had been damaged as well.

"Great…" She mumbled to herself, before leaping up to resume firing. The collectors were gaining the upper hand now. And she couldn't afford to stop and worry about something as simple as her shields not being at one hundred percent.

A loud smash cut through the fight, and Melina's gaze snapped upwards for a moment, just in time to see the plating slam back into place, a second tube was now shattered. Shepard couldn't help but grin as she dragged her gaze downwards and shouldered her rifle once again.

Between her and Legion, the collectors were being wiped out little by little. And the lack of reinforcements was beginning to show. Wherever they were coming from, the supply was running out.

"Keep it up!" She called out, she failed to notice just how strained her voice had become. The constant fighting was beginning to take its toll. Finally, she fired a careful burst, and ripped a collector in half. And suddenly everything was silent. "The hell?" She whispered, before pulling herself up to rest against the wall. Nothing, no husks, no collectors, just bodies everywhere.

"Enemy destroyed, likely regrouping." Legion's computerized voice suddenly pitched in. "Danger, scanners indicate incoming hostiles!" A second later the geth ducked behind a wall once again, and Shepard did the same.

Another smash as the third tube was disabled, just one more to go…

This was naturally a signal for the collectors, as a savage howl followed, closely backed up by another wave of the zombie like husks as they rushed towards the trio's position.

"Just once I'd like you to be wrong!" Shepard hissed, her gaze briefly snapping to the geth as it carefully dropped into place along the wall next to her.

"If Shepard commander would before, I'll not warn you next time." Legion said calmly, resulting in the spectre sighing quietly.

"Like talking to a damned wall sometimes." She mumbled, before exchanging her rifle for a shotgun, the husks were moving faster then she'd anticipated.

Steeling herself, the commander shifted upwards once again and fired, the recoil of the gun making her wince, she wasn't sure why, but a sharp pain travelled up her shoulder. Ignoring it, she simply pivoted and fired again, a second husk was ripped to shreds by the carefully aimed round, and again she hissed in pain. Something was wrong here.

Legion was on his feet now, his careful aim easily picking out and dealing with any husk that got to close to the group. Even Garrus had focused on the onslaught. The protection on the tube still firmly in place for the time being.

Ducking out of sight, Shepard paused to administer a dose of medi-gel into her wounds to ensure she wasn't bleeding out. The throbbing in her shoulder slowly subsided, and she breathed a sigh of relief, before sliding up onto one knee to continue firing. The recoil still hurt, just not as badly as before.

"You alright commander?" Garrus asked, in-between shots, clearly spotting her discomfort.

"Fine, just a little beat up." She responded, she'd been shot several times, and her arm was still broken. So it was anyone's guess why she was still on her feet let alone fighting as hard as she was.

Dropping back down, she checked the gauge on her shotgun, and cursed, before ejecting the spent clip and priming another. "You'd think they'd run out of these things by now, considering how many we-"She paused to blast another husk. "-We've killed."

Garrus simply chuckled, before firing a well aimed shot that felled three of them. Shepard briefly smiled. "Come on! Save some for the rest of us." She half whined, before firing several more shots, each killing another husk.

The turian's response was cut short as one of the glowing husks leapt over the cover and swiped the rifle out of his hands. Before it could attack again however, he rolled to one side and came up in a crouch, pistol in hand.

One shot was all it took to hit a weak point, and a loud boom reverberated through the platform as the trio was knocked off their feet.

Wincing as her injured arm struck the ground. Shepard staggered back to her feet and snatched her shotgun up from it's resting place a few steps away. "I really, REALLY hate those things!" She growled, images of Mordin's demise forcing their way back into her mind. She was quick to banish them however, the last thing she needed in the middle of a fight was to dwell on the past.

Luckily, the explosion had dealt with most of the husks. Though when she took aim at one of the remaining few, a distinct click was all her gun did. "Damn it!" She was already in the automated process of reloading, when she realized the clip was still fine.

The gun itself was the problem.

Gritting her teeth, she slung the shotgun over her shoulder and drew her pistol; thankfully the weapon still worked and made short work of the husks. "Thank god that's over." She mumbled, before clipping the pistol to her belt and examining her shotgun. "The hell went wrong with this thing?"

A quick examination revealed the explosion from the husk, and being dropped, had damaged it somehow, the shotgun wouldn't be working again any time soon. "Just what I need, a useless piece of scrap metal."

Sighing heavily, she compacted the weapon and returned it to it's place on her back. Favouring her assault rifle instead.

As she checked to ensure it wasn't damaged as well, the dull grating of metal on metal drew their attention upwards. For some reason, the plating on the final tube was receding, giving them a clear shot at the final tube. "Huh…You'd think that would be a permanent fixture. Maybe the stuff can't transfer while it's locked down." Melina thought out loud, her free hand moving to rest against her chin, or at least as best as she could with the helmet in the way.

"Either way…" A loud bang brought her out of her thoughts, and the tube shattered a split second later. Garrus calmly lowered his still smoking rifle. "It won't be stopping us."

The squad watched calmly as the reaper remained in place. Had EDI been wrong?

Slowly, a dull groaning was heard, and the squad slowly shuffled back a few steps as the reaper started to teeter slightly. "Were standing on a platform less then twenty feet away from that thing…Anyone else suddenly thinking this is a bad idea." Garrus commented as he watched the behemoth unnervingly sway back and forth, its weight beginning to get the best of what little support was left.

"This unit recommends immodest retreat." Legion pitched in his agreement, and despite being a machine, Shepard could almost hear the uneasiness behind it's monotone voice.

Melina was halfway through calling for a retreat, not that there was anywhere for them to go. When the supports holding the reaper up suddenly snapped in a shower of sparks and screeching metal.

Without pause, it suddenly dropped downwards, the edge of the platform, and the massive drop below swallowing it in a heartbeat.

At first they all breathed a sigh of relief, or would have, had it not been for one of it's skeletal hands suddenly slamming into the edge of the platform and almost flipping it right over.

Legion somehow kept his balance, Shepard was getting suspicious that he had gravity clamps in his feet or something, that had to be how he remained tethered in place even when stuff like this went down.

Garrus however, was sent crashing to the deck, and as the platform tipped further, he began to slide rapidly towards the edge.

Shepard, having only stumbled, saw this happening, and felt her heart stop for a moment as she saw the turian sliding towards his death. "Garrus!" Without thinking, she began to run forwards, though there was no way in hell she could match his insane speed.

Taking a a deep breath, she leapt forwards, the wind being knocked out of her as she slammed into the metal platform and began to slide after her friend.

Luckily the stabilizers had kicked in and the ground was slowly righting itself. Though not fast enough to stop their decent into hell.

Garrus hit the edge and a second later so did Shepard. Her hand lashed out and found a gap in the platform, a loud yelp forced it's way out of her as she suddenly jerked to a halt, her already broken arm being stretched to it's limits, and likely being dislocated by the sudden and painful jolt.

The other extended over the side, but she knew it was hopeless, Garrus was already over the edge and gone. Time seemed to halt as she lay their, staring at the edge, though in reality it was only a heartbeat. He was gone, just like that…

Suddenly she was abruptly pulled forwards another inch, her teeth gritting as her arm was extended even further, a loud crack was heard and she barely resisted screaming in pain, though the sudden weight on her shoulder and arm could be only one thing.

"Garrus!" She swiftly lifted her head and peered over the side, sure enough by some miracle he'd managed to grab her at the last second and stop his downward decent. Though she couldn't say this was any better, she was already losing her grip on the platform, her arm growing numb and weak.

"Commander…" Melina's gaze snapped around to focus on Garrus, and she reconized the look in his eyes.

"Don't, even, fucking THINK, about it!" She snarled, before putting all of her effort into dragging the turian back onto the platform, as a result, she finally lost feeling in her left arm, and slid towards the edge herself.

"Melina…You know you can't do it." Shepard gasped as she finally halted, now half over the edge herself. That had been the first time Garrus had used her firs time. Hell it was the first time anyone had used her first time, save Liara.

"I'm not going to drop you. Now stop being stubborn, I'm pulling you up, or falling with you." She almost pleaded with him, before making another attempt to pull him up.

This was it, if she couldn't do it this time. They were both dead for sure, she wouldn't let the stubborn bastard die cause of her weakness. Sure enough, her arm failed to support her, and she felt herself inching towards the edge once again.

Just before she slid forwards again however, she felt a pair of hands suddenly grip her legs, and she was dragged a few inches backwards. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw, and felt Legion tighten his grip, before signal handily pulling both of them back onto the platform…Damn he was stronger then she thought.

"Think I saw my life flash before me eyes." Garrus commented, a smile, or what passed for one, twisting his features.

Shepard simply rolled her eyes as she shakily rolled onto her back. "Vakarian…When we get back to the ship…You're going on a bloody diet." She tried to sound mad, but a laugh still found it's way into her voice and betrayed her amusement.

"Whatever you say ma'am."

* * *

Melina winced and bit her tongue to stifle a howl of pain as Garrus carefully reset her shoulder. Sure enough, the sudden jolt when trying to stop herself had dislocated it. Sadly he couldn't fix the bones, but at least she could use the arm again, albeit painfully.

She carefully rolled her shoulder to get feeling back into it, while Legion toyed with his Omni-tool. A second later a life sized hologram of the last person Shepard wanted to see sprung up next to him. Unsurprisingly, he was busy smoking a cigarette, when wasn't he?

"Shepard, you've done the impossible." The Illusive Man said, the barest hint of a smile forming as she sunk to one knee and began accessing the main control system, while she'd been getting patched up, Legion had managed to find and hack the terminal, giving them unobstructed access to it.

"I didn't do it alone…And some of them gave their lives to pull off this mission." Her hands halted for a moment, she hadn't heard anything from the others, were they still alive? Did they get picked up? Or was the team still fighting? What was going on back there.

"I know. Their sacrifices will not be forgotten, but thanks to them you managed to acquire the collector base!" She paused again, her hand having extended for the device Legion was holding, all she needed to do was hook it up, make a few adjustments, and the core was as good as blown.

What made her stop, was the way he spoke, something was off here. She got the feeling she wouldn't like the rest of his words. "I've been looking at the schematics EDI uploaded. They were building a reaper-" She rolled her eyes, tell us something we don't know already. "That knowledge, that framework could save us!"

Before he could say anymore, Shepard was on her feet and facing the Illusive Man, her eyes blazing with fury. "They liquefy people! Turn them into something horrible, we have to destroy this abomination of a base!" She snarled, no way in hell could this place stand! They had to destroy it!

"Don't be short sighted. We can use the collectors were working with the reapers we can use their own technology against them!" Her teeth quietly ground together, Garrus looked appalled at the idea.

"So Cerberus suddenly wants to kill innocent people and build their own reaper?" He growled, his mandibles twitching in anger as he glared at the hologram, how he wished he could punch the smug bastard.

Shepard slowly took a deep breath. "I lost half my squad, those people were my friends…My family!" She snapped, her hand easily snatching the device out of Legions hand before she spun around to begin working on the terminal once again. "Fuck you and you're plans, I'm not letting this place fall into the wrong hands."

"A timed radiation pulse could wipe out the collectors and leave the technology intact! Think about it Shepar-" Before he could finish, the hologram suddenly died and vanished. Shepard finished adjusting the console, and the hologram on the terminal changed.

Studying it for a moment, she contemplated what the best option was, don't be short sighted Shepard…On one hand, all she had to do was plant the charge and blow the place sky high…On the other, what if they could gain some use out of the place.

She sure as hell wouldn't trust Cerberus with building a reaper, if she got wind of that she'd burn the place to the ground and cut the Illusive Man's head off with a blunt knife.

On the other…She began tapping I the commands for the purge. "Shepard…You can't be considering this?" Garrus asked quietly, sinking to one knee next to her.

"Not exactly. But we can't throw away an opportunity like this. Much as I hate Cerberus, and the Illusive Man…We need every tool we can get to fight the reapers with."

Garrus was silent for a moment, before nodding reluctantly. "I hope you know what you're doing commander…"

"So do I…So do I."

Finally she finished inputting the commands and a timer appeared on her Omni-tool. "Alright, we got ten minutes to get out of here." Rising to her feet, Shepard reached for her comm. unit. "Joker, were do-"

A loud boom shook the platform, followed by another. The trio slowly turned around to face the edge they'd almost fallen off of earlier. "The hell?" Shepard mumbled, before slowly advancing, the others right behind her.

Another boom, whatever it was, it was getting louder. Had the pulse started early? No that didn't sound right.

Suddenly a clang was heard, and the platform shook as cold metallic fingers gripped the edge, metal grated on metal as a second clang, and another hand gripped the other side.

"No, no we killed it! It wasn't even operational!" Melina almost screamed as she stumbled back a step, a hand flying to her pistol, not that it would do any good.

A second later, with a loud inhuman shriek, the human reapers head flew up over the edge of the platform; it's once cold empty sockets now blazing a brilliant crimson as power began to flow through its body.

As its hands pressed down on the platform and slowly brought more of It's body into view, Shepard, Garrus, and Legion stumbled backwards, terror evident in their eyes as the reaper's mouth opened into a snarl as a bright orange glow formed deep inside it's gaping maw.

"GET DOWN!" Shepard barked, before diving behind her suddenly precious low wall. A second later the world around her shook as a barrage of missiles struck the platform and threatened to snap it in two.

Shivering in a mixture of fear and pain, -she'd landed on her injured arm again- Shepard lifted her head up to peer over the edge, the reaper was gone. "Where di-"

Another loud clang, and her eyes slowly moved to the side of the platform, the same metal fingers now gripped the edge mere feet away from her, a second later the reapers head reared up in front of her, it's eyes gleaming with blood lust as the other hand closed into a fist and came rushing down towards Melina…


	7. Chapter Seven

Shepard froze as the massive hand came rushing towards her, for some reason, the colossal monster suddenly springing to life had sapped the energy out of her limbs and left her powerless to fight back.

Luckily she was the only one, as a second later Garrus rushed into view, and tackled her to the ground. The loud bang of the reapers fist colliding with the platform jolted them, but luckily neither had been crushed as a result.

Shaking her head slightly, Shepard stumbled back to her feet, one hand closing around her assault rifle as she turned to face the grinning nightmare that was the reaper. "How the hell do we stop it?" She asked quietly, she couldn't see any way to shut it down; it wasn't like these things ran on power or the like.

Garrus, having heard her question, simply shrugged. "How the hell should I know/" Rolling back to his feet, he brought his rifle to bare and fired. Naturally the round simply bounced off the reapers armour.

Pulling herself upright, Melina did the same, firing her assault rifle one handed as she stumbled back towards cover, the ominous glow in the machines mouth was getting brighter, and she had a feeling it was going to fire again.

Another loud bang sounded as Garrus fired, and surprisingly the reaper recoiled, a loud shriek leaving the commander deaf for a few seconds. "What did you do!" She demanded, her eyes snapping around to focus on Garrus as he leapt over the wall and sunk into a crouch next to her. Damn it, he made it look easy.

"Beats me. But it hurt." He shrugged slightly, before chambering another round and shifting upwards to fire again. This time the reaper was faster as it let go of the platform and vanished from sight. "Damn, where'd it go?"

Ears still ringing, Shepard simply shrugged, though even with that difficulty, she could still hear the clangs of the beast moving below them. "It's coming up!" She warned, before whipping around just in time to see the reaper surge over the edge once again, Its claws sinking into the platform's edges and tearing sparking chunks of metal out as it did so.

Rolling over the cover, she ducked behind the other side, before propping her rifle up on the edge and taking aim. This wasn't going to work, bullets against a reaper, hell she'd have been better off throwing rocks at the damned thing.

Putting the thought from her mind, she simply started firing, half hoping to hit something vital. Bullets pinged off it's chest and neck as she slowly brought her aim upwards. "What the hell do they make these things out of?" She cursed, knowing the answer was likely star ship grade plating or better.

Suddenly, Garrus fired again, his one striking one of the reapers eyes, and again it recoiled with a roar of pain. Shepard hesitated for a moment, before focusing on Garrus and Legion, whom she noted was having the same results as her. 'Go for the eyes!"

Chances are it would only piss it off. But it was better then nothing. Before she could add her own fire to the battle, the monster returned fire, obviously angered with getting shot, and the trio were forced into hiding as rockets slammed into their cover, chunks of metal struck Shepard's shields and caused her to wince as a piece made it through and cut her cheek.

The dull throbbing was nothing compared to her other injury's though, and like them, she simply banished the pain to the back of her mind and resumed firing, her aim now carefully directed towards the reapers eyes.

Garrus was the lucky one however, his rifle easily planting shots where they counted, Melina and Legions assault rifles however were more erratic and even firing short controlled bursts, she knew the rounds were simply not powerful enough. "Damn, if only we had a rocket launcher…" She muttered, before slamming a fresh clip into her rifle and resuming firing.

This damned thing just wouldn't die, and they were rapidly running out of cover. Now and then it would lash out with it's fists, forcing them to move and in turn crushing sections of wall and platform. Others a barrage of rockets would tear through what little was left.

Despite the squads best attempts though, the reaper seemed invincible. Every time they managed to hit the eyes, which seemed to be the only place the monster felt the shots, it would simply fall out of sight and come up from a different angle, and even then it didn't see to be that bothered by whatever damage they were doing.

Another rocket barrage ripped through the area, and Shepard offered another colourful curse. "Damn it! We can't keep this up much longer." She spared a glance towards her Omni-tool; the countdown timer on the purge was rapidly bleeding away.

6:32

Legion stumbled as a rocket ripped through the wall he'd been hiding behind, though he just as quickly he ducked out of sight, finding another section to use. "Were fast running out of cover here…We can't keep this up much longer." Shepard winced as the ground shook from another impact, how much more could the supports on the platform take?

Garrus continued to hit the reapers eyes, though Melina noted with mounting fear that it wasn't helping, yes the occasional shot made seemed to hurt, but the fact was it was still trying to rip them apart.

She knew she had to do something, her assault rifle was rapidly running out of clips and there wasn't time to get more. Cringing at the prospect, she compacted the weapon and exchanged it for her own sniper rifle. Considering her arm, using a weapon that would force her to use it certainly wouldn't help. But what other choice was there?

Brining the weapon up to her shoulder, she started to line up with the eyes, only then did she realize it in fact had three, two on the left, and one on the right. She paused for a moment, confused by how she didn't see it sooner, before the commander simply banished the thought, why she had to think about that now she didn't know.

The glow was getting brighter, it was going to fire again, great. Shepard was in the process of lowering her rifle, when an idea struck her. "Garrus! Aim for the mouth, hit the rockets!"

It was stupid, sure, but if they could cause them to explode, maybe it would do some damage. At least throw the reaper off for a few seconds.

She noted a slight hesitation, before the turian nodded and steadied his aim. She wasn't confident enough with the rifle to pull off a shot like that, he was.

But that led to another problem. It was aiming right at them.

Springing to her feet, Shepard broke into a run for the opposite end of the platform, firing her rifle blinding as she moved. Sure enough, the reapers head turned to follow her rather then focus on the still stationary Garrus. And with Legion no where in sight, she could only hope she wasn't leading it to him by mistake.

Skidding to a halt, she chambered another round and fired again at the machine, this time taking the time to line up with its eyes. She saw it rear back, though that didn't stop the incoming rockets.

As the barrage began however, another shot rang out, and the missiles suddenly exploded, one chaining into the next. This time the reaper did scream, the sound coming out as both human and somewhat heart wrenching, and like screeching metal.

Shepard found herself on her knees at this point, hands clasped over her helmet in a vain attempt to stifle the sound. After a few moments the sound died away, and Melina risked opening her eyes. The reaper was nowhere in sight.

Was that it? Had they beaten it? She spared a glance over her shoulder, Garrus and Legion were jogging over to her, the sniper was yelling something, but thanks to the reaper she couldn't hear much of anything at this point, save a high pitch ringing and the sound of her heartbeat.

Shepard shakily stood once again and spared a glance towards the last known location of the beast. "We killed it?" She asked, her own voice muffled and weak to her ears.

"Think so." Garrus responded, and she managed a weak sigh of relief as she actually heard him this time, if only just. Luckily that thing hadn't ruined her hearing, not fully at least.

Melina did her best to steady her heart and breathing while checking her Omni-tool display. Her heart almost stopped entirely when she brought up the timer.

4:17

"Oh, hell…" She spared a glance towards Garrus, whom looked less then thrilled. "We have to move, now!" Shepard drew her assault rifle, the collectors weren't just going to let them walk out of here. And started towards the edge of the platform, how the hell would they get out of here in time? "EDI, can you get us an exit, fast?" She called into her comm...

No response, that wasn't good.

Melina licked her lips nervously before repeating the question, still nothing.

"Must be interference, we'll have to find our own way out." Garrus offered as an explanation, though Shepard could tell he wasn't convinced by his own words. Maybe the Normandy had been destroyed.

"Okay, we need to find another path out of here, going back the way we came will take to long." Her Omni-tool flickered into life, and ignoring the rapidly dwindling timer, she brought up the schematic of the base and tried to locate an exit.

"Shepard commander!" Her gaze snapped up from the display to focus on Legion, whom was peering down into the depths below, one hand was straying towards a gun on his back.

'Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me!" She growled as a distant clang sounded, and a slight vibration swept through the platform.

Another followed, then another. And a moment later, the same nightmarish hand closed around the remains of the platform edge, and the once grinning skull of the reaper surged into view.

Now though, she noted two of the three eyes were faded and sparking, and the lower half of its jaw was missing, the explosion had really done a number on it. But the fact remained it was still moving.

3:22

"I'm out." Garrus growled, his rifle dangling uselessly at his side. A quick glance confirmed the same thing. "Pistol's won't work, if rifles didn't."

Shepard sighed heavily as she met the behemoths gaze. So this was it, their was no way to stop this thing, not with their weapons anyway…

"Shepard commander." She spared a glance towards Legion, whom had finished preparing the weapon he'd been carrying all this time. Funny how she'd never noticed it, or really paid attention before.

Her gaze calmly scanned the design, and she felt her heart speed up as she recognized the device. "You've had that this whole time!" She snapped, causing the geth to shrug slightly. "Why the hell didn't you tell us!"

"Didn't seem necessary at the time." Legion responded before bringing the weapon to bear on the reaper, it's still working eye focused on the machine, and both tried to stare the other down.

Shepard started to inch backwards, he wasn't going, oh hell. "Garrus! Get down!" She called out, before dropping to the ground as fast as possible, just in time to hear the missile fire.

The reaper roared again, and she could hear one of it's fists raising for another attack, the whine of servos making it apparent that it wasn't holding up well after the last attack, and this one…If this didn't stop it, then nothing would.

She had enough time to tilt her head slightly, her before a blinding flash forced her head back down, her arms instinctively wrapping around her helmet to protect her as best as she could.

A second later the white light was accompanied by a deafening boom. Melina had enough time to wince, before the platform started to quake and shudder under the resulting shockwave.

Again she risked a peak, and cringed as she saw nothing save the same light as before, white slowly gave way to blood red as the reaper howled again, the sound much quieter then before as the explosion ripped through the chamber and silenced everything in its wake.

Red slowly gave way to orange as the nuke ran it's course and the explosion began to die out. Though not before doing massive damage to the reaper, having hit it square in the chest.

Still dazzled by the explosion, Melina shakily pulled herself up to one knee and glanced about the platform. The machine was gone, Legion was nowhere in sight, and she was just able to make out a shape stirring slightly as Garrus spared the explosion a glance.

"The, hell, was that/" He asked, his wide with shock.

Shepard tried to answer, though dissolved into a coughing fit as she pulled herself upright, a hand jumping to her ribs as pain washed over her, this constant moving wasn't doing her any good. "Legion…He had a Cain." She managed to gasp between coughs. "He must had raided the armoury before we came down here."

Speaking of which, where was legion? Shepard did another sweep of the remains of the platform, and winced as she failed to see him. "How the hell is this thing even still standing?" She mumbled, noting the ground around them was ruined, from explosions the reapers claws, and everything else that had happened, the place was a mess.

As if to answer her question, the sound of metal groaning under the stress broke the tense silence, and the platform began to sway slightly. "Oh you've got to be kidding…"

Sure enough, the platform suddenly shuddered, then dropped as it began to follow the reaper downwards.

The sudden drop caused both soldiers to stumble, though that was the least of their worries. Other platforms were coming down around them. Glancing upwards, Melina noted the support beams that had hung overhead were breaking apart as well.

Great, she'd set the place to purge to keep it intact for Cerberus, but it looked like that nuke was bringing it down anyway.

"Well, least we took that son of a bitch out with us." Garrus said, a forced smile forming as he clung tightly to a broken section of wall.

Shepard nodded slightly. The ground floor had to be coming up soon, this was it…

She hesitated for a moment, before simply shaking her head, f she was going to die, then she was going to make the most of it, unlike last time.

Without pause, she stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around Garrus, her head burying into his chest. "See you on the other side." She mumbled quietly, uncaring if he heard or not. They were dead anyway, might as well make the most of it. Surprisingly, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder, just before something struck the platform, and everything went black.


	8. Chapter Eight

Pain, that was the first thing Shepard was aware of as she finally woke. Part of her wanted to embrace the cold darkness that had been there a second ago and black out again, though she forced her eyes to open regardless, pain meant she was still alive, and that meant the pulse hadn't triggered yet.

As her eyes focused, she noted her vision was blurred and red. The first was no doubt due to whatever had knocked her out, the red though, she realized was blood staining the inside of her helmet.

Several warning lights blinked on and off as well, and once she was able to focus enough to read them, she cringed at the news. Shields were offline, medi-gel supply was depleted, and her armour was starting to shut down.

Shifting slightly, she nodded her Omni-tool was glowing as well, tilting her head, she realized that her body wasn't much better, left leg was broken in three places, probably wouldn't support her weight, arm was still broken and she couldn't feel it anymore.

Damn it, it was a wonder she was still breathing, cracked ribs, the list went on…

No doubt she had the Cerberus implants to thank for her still beating heart.

Shaking her head slightly, she dug her palm into the floor and started to push herself upright. Though this proved, impossible as she became aware of something heavy resting on her back. She was in no position to move it.

After a few moments, she gave up and let her body fall back to the floor. Her Omni-tool blinked again, and she spared it a glance.

1:30

Hell, there was no time left…

Movement caught her eye, and lifting her head slightly, she spotted Garrus pulling himself out of the debris nearby and stumbling towards her. He looked as bad as she felt. Though the fact that he was still standing at this point proved he was doing much better.

Staggering over to the commander, she was surprised when he managed to lift whatever was pinning her up and off. The loud bang of it striking the floor indicated it was something heavy. A few moments later he offered a hand, which Shepard gladly accepted, though as she was pulled upright, her fears were proven correct, as she almost collapsed a second later when her leg refused to support her weight.

"You don't look so good commander…" Melina offered a rather pathetic smile at that, before shrugging slightly, this led to a wince as the movement jarred her already numb shoulder.

"You sure you're right to walk Shepard?" She spared Garrus a glance, only now realizing that behind the blood, her visor was cracked. The commander offered a annoyed glare, though it was obviously half hearted and she relaxed a second later.

"I can still walk if that's what you're asking…So, no you don't get to carry me this time." She almost laughed at the mock disappointment that briefly crossed the snipers face, or was that real? She couldn't tell, her head was spinning again and it was making it hard to focus on much of anything.

"Suit yourself." He muttered in response, and she could just pick up on the disappointment their as well, damn he was a good actor at times…

Wincing again, she moved to grab her rifle, and found it, and her other weapons missing, the only one she still had was her pistol. "Great…" Checking the display again, or what was left of it, she noted the magnetic clamps had failed as well, her weapons were gone. "Good thing this fights almost over.

1:00

"Not good!" She growled, Garrus too shifted uneasily as he caught sight of the display.

"Commander come in! Come on don't leave me hanging!" Joker, thank god he was still alive, that meant the ship was okay.

"I'm here, were-" She glanced about the platform, and finally caught sight of Legion disentangling himself from the rubble and moving towards them, his armour was melted and a few pieces were missing. And the optical light that counted for his eyes was cracked, likely making it hard for him to see, but he was still standing, and that's all she cared about. "-Were here, coming to you now!" With a nod, she whipped around and started towards the tunnel they'd, somehow found themselves in front of.

Had she more time, she'd have questioned the twist of fate, but there was seconds to go, and no time left to ponder such things now.

Gripping her pistol tightly, Shepard forced her legs into motion, despite the pain that flared up with each step, she forced herself to look past it and keep moving. She wasn't even game enough to look at the counter anymore, less she discover something she didn't want to.

The tunnel seemed to stretch on forever, and with each turn Melina couldn't shake the feeling they were going in circles. Every second counted and they were lost! Luckily this passage only went one way, so even with that notion in the back of her head, it wasn't like It mattered.

Just when things were starting to grow brighter, and she suspected the end of the tunnel was drawing close, something struck the back of her leg and caused the commander to stumble.

Twisting slightly, she noted a wave of collectors only a few feet behind them. The rest of the squad was still running, or so she assumed, but she slowed and spun to face the advancing aliens, her pistol firing aimlessly as she did her best to buy the others time.

One against a dozen though had dire side effects. As Shepard discovered when several rounds pierced her armour and sent her stumbling back a step. The lack of medi-gel was quite noticeable as the injury's continued to pain her long after she was hit.

"Shepard!" She ignored Garrus for the moment and instead fired until her pistol clicked empty, then simply spun around and started running again. Finally she glanced downwards to her arm.

0:27

This was going to be the death of her, again if they didn't get out of here soon!

Stumbling around another corner, she winced as pieces of the wall behind her were chipped away, she simply kept running the others were a few feet ahead of her at this point and she intended to catch up or die trying. At this rate it was going to be the latter.

Slamming her last thermal clip into the pistol, she managed to fire another shot over her shoulder, before giving up and simply focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.

A few steps alter and the tunnel finally opened in an expansive chamber, ahead she could make out a bridge, and as she drew closer the Normandy surged into view and spun sideways, the airlock swiftly opening as they approached. "Go go go!" She called out, though she was the only one slowing them down at this point.

Garrus and Legion reached the ship, and she could just make out Joker waiting for them, assault rifle in hand as he tried to buy her some time.

Just when it looked like she would make it however, the rapidly collapsing station threw one last obstacle in her way, namely another support beam crashing into the bridge and smashing the end of it. Leaving her with several feet of nothing to close the gap with.

She had two options at this point, jump and hope for the best, or stop running now and go down fighting…

Taking a deep breath, she simply put all of her effort into running, and as the end of the remaining platform reached her feet, she pushed off and leapt forwards.

The distance was closing rapidly, but she could feel gravity pulling her downwards at the same time. This was a stupid idea!

A second later she impacted with the side of the ship, her hands instinctively lashing out in a attempt to grab hold of something as she began sliding backwards towards the sheer drop below.

Just as she reached the edge, Garrus rushed forwards, his hands closing around her wrists and stopped her at the last second. "I'm not letting you go that easily." He growled, before dragging her back into the ship. Had the situation not been as, dangerous, she'd have laughed at the reversal of their earlier situation. Though somehow he was able to pull her to safety, and the airlock slammed shut a second afterwards, any longer and she'd have likely lost her legs…

Breathing heavily, she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, Garrus was along side on his knees still from saving her, and was catching his breath as well. Joker was gone, likely to get them out of here, and Legion was somewhere out of sight, she presumed having followed the pilot.

The ship shuddered around them as the engines powered up. And despite everything, Shepard couldn't help but chuckle as she propped herself up on one arm. "We, we made it…I can't believ-" She was cut off by a coughing fit, by the end she could taste blood, but she ignored it for the moment and shifted back to lean against the wall. "Can't believe we made it out of there alive…"

"Me either." Garrus commented as he stood and once again offered her a hand, which she gladly accepted.

Despite her body wanting to just lay their and give up. Melina slowly limped to the bridge and rested her weight against the back of Jokers chair, ahead of them she could only see the blackness of space, and the debris of the ships that had failed before them.

"We made it, and the stations purged…Lets just hope the Illusive Man can make use of the tech we left behind…If the stations still standing." Shepard chuckled quietly at the turian's comments, after all the damage they did; it wouldn't surprise her if it detonated anyway.

She paused to remove her helmet, and cringed at just how much blood stained the inside. She HAD to have a head injury after all this. A glance downwards confirmed her armour wasn't much better, bullet holes, blood stains both hers and others, and dents marred it's once pristine surface.

Shaking her head slightly, she turned away from the bridge and started to limp towards the elevator, not noticing that each step was becoming harder then the last. "I'll be in my…Quarters…Need to get this armour off." She mumbled, her voice slurred and weak

"I think we should get you to the doctor commander." Garrus was suddenly at her side, and as Shepard turned to regard the worried turian, she found the edges of her vision were suddenly dark. And what little she could see was blurred and hard to focus on.

"Might be…Right…" She stumbled slightly as she tried to turn towards the elevator again, her hands managing to find a terminal of some description to hold her upright.

"Commander!" Melina barely heard the cry of alarm, before she finally succumbed to her injury's and collapsed to the deck with a loud thud. She was dimly aware of someone grabbing her and lifting her off the floor, before everything finally faded to black, the dull beating of her heart was the last thing she heard before that too died away.


	9. Chapter Nine

How long had she been out? Shepard didn't know, but as consciousness returned and her limbs regained feeling, she began to realize just how badly beat up she was.

 _Everything_  ached, from her toes to her head. And as she became more aware of her surroundings, she offered a weak groan, her hands flexing instinctively as she tried to fight off the numbness that had crept into her extremities.

She noted only vaguely at her left hand was closed around something, something that gently squeezed it in response. Had she been more aware, she'd have laughed at the thought of someone holding her hand while she was passed out on the deck.

No, that didn't feel right, the deck was hard and solid, as she shifted very slightly, whatever she was laying on was soft and comfortable. She'd been moved, likely to a bed at some point.

"She's waking up!" A voice, distant and echoing made her cringe slightly, somehow she felt like she'd attained a hangover during the past few…However long she was out for. Every tiny sound made her already aching head that much worse.

"About time, I was beginning to think we'd lost her again." Another voice, this one a little clearer and unlike the first, it lacked that weird sound behind it. Her head was to screwed up to figure out what the sound was called.

Her eyes finally cracked open. Only to slam shut again a second later as she was dazzled by the blinding lights above her. Instead of trying to open them again, she decided to try speaking instead. Though she soon discovered her throat was dry and she couldn't muster anything louder then a barely audible whisper.

"Get her some water." She heard the first voice say, now that she could focus a little more, she recognized it, Garrus.

She made another attempt to open her eyes, though this time her lids proved too heavy, and refused to budge. "Stats are dropping, were losing her." Darkness swiftly crept back into her mind.

* * *

Miranda sighed heavily as she studied Shepard. The commander had woken up, briefly, but things were not going well. Doctor Chakwas had shown the Cerberus agent the diagnostic and it hadn't been pretty.

"It's a wonder she's even still breathing." She remembered saying after scanning through the list of damages. Had it not been for all the implants and synthetics they'd had to use to rebuild her, she wouldn't have even survived half of what she'd gone through, let alone live to tell the tale.

Or rather, might, live. She corrected herself; Shepard was still in bad shape even now. It would be a miracle if se made it through the night.

Then again, if anyone would perform a miracle, it'd be Shepard, wouldn't it?

She spared a glance towards the side of the bed. Much like herself, Garrus had been given the report, and hadn't left Melina's side since he'd carried her to the med bay. Despite several people's insistence, he'd refused to leave. Miranda herself was reluctant to as well. Though after the first couple of hours she'd given up waiting and simply returned regularly to ensure she was still breathing.

Shaking her head, she decided not to bother distracting the turian, and simply left them alone.

* * *

Garrus didn't even spare the woman a glance as she left the room. Aside from the doctor who was busy doing something at her terminal, it was just the two of them now. The surviving members of the squad had visited once or twice, but for the most part were keeping away. He couldn't blame them.

Seeing the commander in such a sorry state was, heart wrenching to say the least. Though he, like everyone else knew that if anyone would live through this, it'd be Shepard. Hell if she could come back from the dead and lead a second suicide mission with no chance of success and win, then he highly doubted a few broken bones and internal injury's would get the best of her.

"You really should get some sleep." He heard Chakwas say quietly, though he ignored her, he wouldn't leave until he was absolutely certain she'd still be there when he came back.

A week had passed before Shepard had been deemed *safe*, her condition finally improving enough that they could confirm she was going to survive, though it would likely be a while longer before she was up and moving, let alone able to fight.

Again she was blinded by the lights as she tried to open her eyes, and offered a quiet growl that only hurt her throat as she tried to lift her hand to shield her eyes. Much like before though, she discovered her limbs were heavy and numb.

"She's awake again!" She heard Garrus call out, and the sound of someone moving closer to the bed, though she didn't pay them much heed.

"Dim the lights. I'm going blind here." She finally managed to mutter as another failed attempt to open her eyes failed. Luckily each time it was getting better.

Third times the charm it seemed as she finally managed to open her eyes a little and keep them open. Eventually she managed to blink them back into focus. "How are you feeling commander?"

Melina's gaze shifted slightly to focus on the person who spoke, after a few moments she recognized the doctor and offered a weak smile. "Like I got tackled by a krogan…" She managed to mutter.

"Well, considering what you've been through, I think that would be a more pleasant outcome." Shepard chuckled at that, though this only led to a coughing fit as her ribs reacted painfully to the action.

She only became aware of Garrus' presence when he gently squeezed her hand again, and her gaze shifted slightly to him next. "How long you been sitting there?" She asked, her voice slurring slightly as the drugs that should have been keeping her sedated began to take effect.

"About a week…" He shrugged slightly, and she couldn't help but wince at the comment even though her mind was getting foggy due to the painkillers.

"A week? How long have I been out?"

"A week" he repeated, and she groaned again.

"Great…"

* * *

Two hours later, and Shepard had finally talked Doctor Chakwas into letting her leave the medbay. Now that she was awake, she was eager to get back to work, even if she couldn't fight, she had to see for herself that everything was running smoothly.

Of course it hadn't been easy to convince the doctor she was alright to move. And in the end she'd been forced to agree to taking Garrus with her, and he'd been given the order that if she so much as coughed, he had to bring her back and not let her leave until further notice.

Shepard didn't protest though, she was greatful for the worry, but at the same time she couldn't deny the fact that she hated being confined to her bed. Even if it meant suffering a bad limp and having her left arm in a cast for the next three days at best.

Apparently the implants she'd been given enhanced her healing somewhat, and she'd make a full recovery soon enough. She was glad to hear it, though still had issues with the news.

Sure she'd survived and would be fighting fit soon enough. But what about Tali, Jacob, Mordin and Thane? They hadn't been so lucky, and as she carefully wandered the ship, stopping to greet each crew member, she realized just how…Empty the ship felt now.

The lab was devoid of life, the terminal Tali always worked at was unmanned and lifeless…

Yeah, she survived, but it cost her more dearly then she wanted to admit.

Zaeed, stubborn as ever had made a full recovery, his wounds not even being remotely as bad as her own. And Legion, despite having parts of his armour melted and a large portion of circuits fried by the EMP from the nuke, was still functioning and had salvaged some spare equipment to fix himself with.

And everyone else had only received minor injury's and had been treated.

It still wasn't enough though; she'd lost friends, people that had trusted her with their lives. And she'd failed them. She kept her thoughts to herself however, knowing if she told anyone they'd either assure her it wasn't her fault, or try to get her mind off the subject.

Much like with Ashley, she'd deal with the problems on her own.

"Shepard, the Illusive Man wants to see you in the debriefing room." Shepard's head jolted up from her desk, blood shot and unfocused eyes spanning towards the intercom.

After a moment she cleared her throat and tapped the button to respond. "Alright. Be there in five." She clicked it off again a few moments later, before shifting back in her seat, a hand moving to rub the back of her neck.

As she stood she spared the clock on her Omni-tool a glance and sighed quietly, she'd been asleep for about two hours, not nearly enough. And before that she'd been drowning her sorrows in a bottle of some potent drink that she was regretting even now.

Staggering to her feet, she swiftly made her way to the elevator and punched the button for the correct deck.

"Shepard, good to see you're still in one piece." Melina barely hid a cringe as the briefing room transformed into the Illusive Man's office, as per usual he was busy smoking something or other and while she thankfully couldn't smell it, she still felt the familiar disgust at the thought alone.

She really hated smoking, and normally she tolerated people who did, they all had their vices after al, she really didn't like him either, so when combined together, she always hated these meetings.

"Thanks to the doctor. Can't say I feel like I'm in one piece though." Even hours later she still had aches and pains across her body and standing here wasn't helping. She needed to lie down and sleep for a while.

"I'm glad you decided not to destroy the collector base." He simply ignored her response and continued. "The data we can recover from it will prove quite useful in defeating the reapers."

Melina twitched slightly at that. "What exactly do you hope to learn? The only thing I saw in there was the reaper production line. Unless you're hoping to find out how they built them and come up with a weakness form that, I doubt you'll find much."

"I'm sure we'll find some valuable data regardless of what the base is designed to do." Again Shepard felt her hands twitch. Despite his calm and almost dismissive attitude, she couldn't help but feel that had been a stab at her conerns, she was really not in the mood.

"You'd better. I lost a lot of good people trying to take that base. So the last thing I want to hear was that it's worthless."

"Yes, I'm sorry about you're comrades, but their sacrifices will not be in vain, nor will they be forgotten." Melina hesitated for a long moment, and somehow tuned out the rest of his words as he continued. She wasn't paying attention anymore.

Finally she cut him off; her arms crossing as she abruptly spoke. "Remembered? By who exactly? They died to save the damn galaxy, to stop the collectors and delay the reapers. But who is going to remember that? Who's going to know what they accomplished? The alliance doesn't care; the council will just brush it aside like they did with Saren…"

She paused for a moment, before shaking her head. "They died to save the damned galaxy…And no one but us is every going to fucking know…Or care."

The rest of the meeting went by rather swiftly. Must of it being nothing more then his incessant claims of the base assuring human dominance and the like. Everything she'd heard before. Shepard had heard it all before.

Finally she spun on her heel and began to walk away. "Shepard, one last thing." And halted, her hands slowly clenching into fists.

Twisting her upper body, she focused on the Illusive Man once again. "What?"

"I'm sending you the coordinates for one of our research facilities. We've lost contact with it, and I need someone to investigate." Shepard growled quietly before turning fully to face him.

"And why me? I'm barely on my feet as it is. And the Normandy still needs repairs."

"Quite frankly, It's classified, and you're the only one I think can handle the situation if is as bad as I suspect."

Shepard opened her mouth to respond, hesitated for a moment, before snapping it shut and nodding.

"Fine, I'll look into it as soon as the Normandy's repaired."


	10. Chapter Ten

Shepard sighed heavily for what felt like the eighth time in the past hour as she scanned the report the Illusive Man had sent to her. The base they were supposed to check up on was out in the middle of nowhere, and in turn everything but the barest of details had been kept secret from her. She hated surprises, especially ones set up by Cerberus.

The only thing she had to go on was that it was a research facility, and the name of its latest work, Project Overlord…

"Overlord…What the hell does that stand for?" She mumbled, before finally closing the file, she'd stared at it long enough, and unless more information was sent to her she was running into this mission blind.

Cursing quietly, she switched the terminal off and stood slowly, her leg was still giving her trouble. Two days after she'd managed to get out of the medical wing and get back on her feet. At this rate she'd still be walking with a limp when they reached the base.

Much to her protest, the doctor had dragged her back for more checkups a few hours ago, and had informed her that she was still in bad shape, but that did little to slow her down. Once the Normandy was space worthy again, they'd be heading out, whether she had recovered or not.

Shepard offered a weak groan as she collapsed onto her bed. At the rate things were going, she'd be lucky to still be standing at that point, let alone leading the damn mission…

"I am NOT in the mood for this. Just tell me what you know before I lose my patience." Shepard growled as she glared impatiently at Miranda, as she'd expected, turning to the agent for information was about as easy as bringing an active geth onto the qurian flotilla.

Even Shepard hadn't been that stupid.

Pushing the thought from her head, she carefully shifted back in her seat, hands unclenching as she received another string of *classified this* and *Lack of knowledge that* she'd been getting for the past fifteen minutes.

After a few seconds she lifted a hand and waved her second in command into silence. "Fine, I can see talking to you is as productive as ever." She mumbled before standing, another wince crossed her face, but she was able to mask it well.

"With all due respect Shepard…I think the mission is the least of you're worries." Not well enough it seemed.

"I'll be fine in a few days, long before we hit you're precious research lab. And if I find out you knew what were walking into. I'll be leaving you there." She snapped, before storming out the door and leaving the Cerberus agent to consider her threat.

Honestly, she wouldn't do that. As much as she hated Cerberus, Miranda had proven a somewhat loyal soldier throughout the past few months. And despite her xenophobic attitude and second guessing, she was a faithful and talented individual, and Shepard needed everyone she could, especially with half the squad gone.

She hesitated for a moment, before shaking the thought from her head and continuing to the elevator, she needed another drink…

* * *

Thankfully it seemed Kasumi wasn't home when she arrived. And she was able to raid the bar and leave again without trouble, the last thing she wanted as another string of questions about her drinking habits.

Returning to her quarters, she found her way back to her terminal and out of boredom flipped the screen on; surprisingly she had another message waiting. This one from an unknown source.

A quick scan however caused her to halt midway through pouring her first glass. The message was obviously not meant for her, and contained a much more detailed description of Project Overlord.

Sadly it still wasn't much to go on, telling little more then it being research into the geth and AI as a whole. But it was far more then the Illusive Man and Miranda had told her of.

The source of the message was cleverly masked, but she could tell this had originally been sent to her second in command, and somehow been forwarded to her.

A simple message had been attached to the end.

_She can't be trusted…Watch you're back Shepard._

She wasn't sure whether the knowledge that someone was hacking into their private files was good, or bad. After all they'd seen fit to give her what she wanted, but what else had they been hacking into?

That thought alone made the commander shiver.

* * *

An hour and three drinks later, and Shepard was still as nonplussed as to who sent her the message as she had been before numbing her brain with alcohol.

She hadn't taken chances with it, after reading it, she'd erased the message and taken steps to remove all data, an easy task considering most of the work had been done by the mysterious sender.

It was a tough call to say the least. On one hand, clearly she was meant to walk into this mission blind for some reason, on the other, it was possible the message had been altered and/or fabricated to cause friction between her and her second in command.

It that were the case, who was behind it, and why?

Shepard decided not to dwell on it. The ship was almost repaired enough to make the trip, and they'd be arriving at Aite within a few hours afterward.

* * *

Clicking the terminal off once again, she downed the last glass of drink and decided to call it a night; she'd need some rest before they landed.

Garrus instinctively glanced over his shoulder when the door slid open. He wasn't that shocked to discover it was Shepard standing in the doorway. "Shepard, need me for something?" He asked quietly, before focusing on the terminal once again.

"Have you got a minute?" His typing halted as he picked up on the mixed tone, concern and anger, not a good mix. After a brief pause he decided the guns could wait and focused entirely on the commander.

"Sure. Something on your mind?" The commander took her usual place in the corner of the small room and seemed to toy with her thoughts before finally speaking.

"Plenty…Don't know where to start." The turian had a good idea what was wrong, though he was reluctant to make assumptions, if he was wrong he didn't want to upset her further, still, after a minute he knew she wasn't about to say anything.

"This is about the base isn't it?" Shepard nodded after a moment, her eyes dropping downwards.

"You've got to stop beating yourself up about that. If it wasn't for you none of us would have made it back alive. I know Tali meant a lot to you." He saw her wince, and hesitated for a moment, before continuing. "But you can't blame yourself for what happened. She knew the risks, we all did. I miss her too, but you can't keep dwelling on the past, what happened, happened!"

"She trusted me!" Shepard suddenly snapped, her eyes instantly snapping back up to meet Garrus', he noted they now, even in the dim light they were bloodshot and shining as a fresh wave of tears crept into her vision. "She trusted me with her life and I let her down! Just like Jacob, Thane, Mordin…Ashley." He winced slightly at that, though she obviously missed it. Spirits, she was still blaming herself for Virmire?

"Sorry…Sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you." Melina muttered hastily, before abruptly heading for the door.

"Shepard…" The door automatically closed a moment later, leaving the sniper staring at it, or rather through it as he considered what she'd said. Finally, he turned back to the console, though his typing was much more slower, and his concentration wasn't in it anymore.

* * *

"Commander, we'll be reaching Aite in twenty minutes." Melina groaned as she was rudely awoken. A hand moved to rub her eyes as she sat up and tossed the blankets to one side.

Sparing a glance towards the clock, she groaned at the fact that only three hours had gone by since she'd fallen asleep in the first place. "Alright, I'm up!" She called out in response to Jokers announcement; though she knew he wouldn't have left the comm. on to hear her reply.

Luckily, tired or not, Shepard was out of bed and in her armour in no time. Within five minutes of the announcement she was out of bed and in her armour. The elevator swiftly opened a few moments later and she soon made her way to the briefing room, the rest of her squad was already assembled thankfully, and she offered a slight nod to each in turn, though Miranda obviously picked up on the slight glare before her own.

"Good to see everyone's ready to go." The cheer in her voice was definitely fake, but no one commented on it. She gave each person a careful glance, Garrus a shorter one then the rest, turian's were hard to read, but even she picked up on the concerned stare she was getting. Miranda too she dodged past as quickly as possible, she still wasn't sure whether to believe the message or not, she needed more proof Miranda was hiding something.

Placing her hands on the table, she offered a quiet sigh before speaking. "I'm sure you all know what I've been told. Project Overlord, whatever the hell it is." Her gaze snapped to the Cerberus agent again, before returning to the group as a whole. "Was taking place here." She hit a button and a holographic image of Aite materialized. "We don't know for sure what's happened, but communications have been cut, and the Illusive Man wants answers."

A few murmured comments passed through the crew, and she let them finish before continuing. "Much as I want to say screw it and leave Cerberus for good." She caught Miranda stiffening slightly out of the corner of her eye. "This facility must be important if the Illusive Man wants us to investigate. So I'm going down there to check it out. Anyone who doesn't want to continue helping Cerberus can stay on the ship, I'll be more then happy to drop you off somewhere once were done."

She was surprised to find everyone still standing pledging their support. The biggest ones she'd been worrying about were Zaeed, Kasumi and Samara.

The first two had been given a sizeable paycheck to stick around for the mission, and now that that was over they had no reason to stay. Samara had pledged her support for the mission, but now that her contract was done, she had every right to leave, or kill Shepard if she disapproved of her methods.

"I'm glad you're all still willing to follow, especially after what happened last time." She stood up straight and ignored Garrus' sigh as she offered a slight nod to the group. "We'll be touching down planet side in fifteen minutes…Miranda, Garrus, you'll be coming with me in the Firewalker. The rest of you will wait aboard the Normandy. As soon as we've secured a landing zone at the labs you'll be coming down as well to join the fight. I don't know what's down there. But lets hope it won't take all of us to finish the job."


	11. Chapter Eleven

A jolt ran through the tank as it struck the ground, and Shepard was forced to grit her teeth as her already sensitive bones were jarred as a result. She still wasn't fully healed, and Miranda had been quick to try and take advantage of that, insisting she wasn't well enough to lead and someone else –namely her- should lead this mission in her place.

The commander had soon put an end to that though, and as a result was now safely secured in the tanks pilot seat, Miranda and Garrus were safely onboard as well, now it was just a simple matter of getting to the lab and finding out what happened.

As had been expected, even when in close orbit they couldn't raise the facility, though they had discovered the communication systems were online, so it was a matter of no one picking up the phone rather then a mechanical failure.

With the tank online they soon set off for the nearest building, namely the communication center itself. "Nothing on scanners…Strange, you'd think the defences would still be online at least." Shepard observed, her eyes briefly drifting to the sensor readout, before returning to the main screen.

Aite was, beautiful if she were to judge. As the tank easily glided over the grassy planes she caught sight of a massive waterfall in the distance that ran across their path and over the side of a cliff where it no doubt continued onwards for miles.

Shifting their angle slightly, she inched the tank towards the edge and peered over the side. Everywhere she looked, the scenery was simply, stunning. "Hard to believe this place isn't colonized…"

* * *

Shepard kept to herself during the trip. She really didn't want to deal with either of her companions right now and in turn she had to keep her attention focused on driving. She heard a few snatches of conversation behind her, though unsurprisingly, Miranda and Garrus weren't exactly friends, and the conversations died quickly.

"Almost there." She commented as the base finally came into view. "No defences, no security…What the hells going on in there?"

"Maybe the security detail was recalled to deal with whatever the threat is?" Miranda suggested as she moved to stand behind Shepard's seat. The commander ignored her for the time being. Instaed she slowed the vehicle to a halt and began powering it down.

"We'll know soon enough." Unbuckling her restraints she pulled herself out of the seat and made her way to the door.

A few moments later and the squad were on the ground, weapons in hand and carefully advancing towards the building. "Eyes open. If they could take out an entire research facility, then their obviously well equipped."

The door opened as soon as they drew close, and the trio slowly inched inside. Melina arched an eyebrow upon discovering the main entrance hall was darkness. "Power must be out." Miranda commented, a few taps of her Omni-tool however, and a flashlight clicked on, closely followed by two more as Shepard and Garrus did the same.

The commander gasped as the lights played across the interior of the room. A few scattered chairs and tables made it appear to be some kind of entrance hall or waiting room, a desk on the far side of the room made her lean towards the latter.

What caught her by surprise though was the chaos that had obviously gone on here. Bullet holes marred the walls and several pieces of furniture. Here and there they spotted blood drying into the walls and floor, and the occasional body wearing a Cerberus uniform, none of them appeared armed.

She would have commented, had her light not chosen that moment to play across a geth soldier. A hand leapt to her pistol, though she halted when she realized the telltale glow of its eye was missing, and it was partly slumped over. "Geth? Here?" She heard Miranda whisper, and barely resisted rolling her eyes.

"Like you didn't already know." She snapped without thinking, earning a confused glance from the agent. Melina wisely shut her mouth after that, choosing instead to keep moving.

As they moved however, she casually drew her pistol and put a round straight through the inactive geths optical unit, with a flash of sparks it collapsed into a heap and remained still.

"Commander?" Garrus' eyes darted back and forth between the destroyed machine and Shepard, who simply shrugged and holstered her weapon. "Better to disable it now, rather then risk it shooting us in the back."

The turian appeared ready to argue, though he swiftly snapped his mouth shut and shook his head.

From that point on they continued in silence, their flashlights playing across the destruction. Bodies of scientists, security and even military personal were scattered about the place. Computer terminals and lights flickered and sparked and once or twice they would explode in a blinding flash that startled the squad.

"Don't look now Shepard, but I think were being watched." Garrus warned, and with a subtle gesture he indicated a section of wall, she wasn't sure of the purpose, but it was reflective, and she could just make out a glowing pair of green eyes staring at them, a second later they vanished, the only remnant being a green flash of light that zipped along the wall and out of sight.

"Strange…" Shepard pushed the thought from her mind, or tried to, as soon enough the strange sighting became a regular occurrence, as did security cameras mounted on the walls that held the same glow, and tracked them incessantly.

It also became abundantly clear that whoever was watching them, had access to the security network as a whole. Doors would randomly open one moment, only to slam shut and lockdown a moment later, Miranda's attempts at hacking them open resulted in the system only encrypting further and making it impossible, or shorting out entirely thus sealing the room forever.

Shepard couldn't shake the feeling their adversary was herding them into a trap. Lock one door, but open another, soon enough they'd end up right where it wanted.

Sure enough, another door opened and they found themselves in what appeared to be the mess hall. Tables were overturned, chairs were broken and scattered. And the kitchen itself appeared to have been converted into some form of last stand position. The counter had spent thermal clips scattered across it's surface , faint burn marks were noticeable as well where the over heated clips had been ejected and metal the plastic countertop.

Sparing a glance over the top, Melina found several bodies, one badly burned, two others riddled with bullets, and only one wore armour, clearly a soldier of some description.

"Damn it…Looks like they held out for a while. Still wasn't enough." Miranda cursed, Shepard couldn't help but nod slightly. As much as she disliked Cerberus, this wasn't right. Most of the people they'd found didn't have weapons, either they'd been taken or they weren't armed in the first place. This was a slaughter, not a defensive position being overrun by mercs or pirates.

"Commander, we've got incoming." Shepard lifted her head slightly when Garrus spoke, and in the silence that followed, she could pick up on the faint clinking of metal on metal, the sound of a safety being clicked off a gun.

"Cover now!" She hissed as quietly as possible, the trio wasted no time leaping over the counter and taking up position in the same place the Cerberus personal had made their last stand.

She really hoped their efforts would end better…

Peering over the counter she noted several security mechs had wandered into the room and were sweeping it with both optics and pistols. The familiar red glow of their eyes was replaced with an eerie green. Something about that colour felt, wrong.

Shepard tensed when one of the mechs suddenly whipped around and focused on her. Before it acted though, a strange burst of intelligible noise came over what she assumed was the intercom before it suddenly opened fire, the rest of it's squad was quick to follow.

Ducking once again, she cursed quietly and checked the readout on her pistol, before tapping in a series of commands on the tiny keypad. A second later the sides of the barrel lit up and glowed sky blue to indicate the ammo mod was working.

Lifting herself up again, she fired several quick, almost blind shots and ducked once they returned fire, luckily one of the machines exploded in a shower of sparks and collapsed.

'What the hell is going on? Why are the mechs engaging on sight?" Miranda called out as she fired a burst from her smg and ducked, several returned shots struck the counter and she ducked her head down further instinctively.

"Why are you asking me? Ask the damned mechs!" Shepard shouted in response before picking off another. Garrus pressed a button on his Omni-tool and a third detonated as its power supply overloaded.

Melina paused to reload her pistol, before holstering it and drawing her assault rifle once again. Between the three of them, it only took a few moments to destroy the rest of the squad.

Aside from the occasional whine of a broken servo or spark from a mech as it powered down. The mess hall was silent.

"I guess we know what happened to the base." Garrus commented, as he scanned the room, before vaulting over the counter, closely followed by Shepard.

"I don't think so. The mechs weren't themselves, did you see the green glow in their optics. Something else was controlling them." The commander dropped to one knee next to a damaged mech, its broken arm trying to grasp its pistol, though without the hand attached to the end it couldn't retrieve the weapon.

The glow faded away to its former crimson and then black as it shut down. "Question is…What exactly is controlling them?"

* * *

The rest of the facility wasn't much better then the first few rooms, bodies damages and the occasional mech ambush made up the next half hour of creeping through the base. And each time there was a lull, Shepard caught sight of the strange green eyes studying them from a terminal or holographic section of wall, before vanishing.

It was beginning to make Melina nervous. The eyes reminded her somewhat of EDI, though while her ship bound companion always seemed eager to help. This one seemed to be watching their progress and was likely responsible for the security mechs that kept barring their path, and the doors that mysteriously locked each time they approached a area it didn't want them entering.

"Now would be a very good time to explain the situation, if you have anything to add Miranda." Shepard finally said, her gaze snapping to the Cerberus operative as they continued down another bullet riddled hallway. "Surely the Illusive Man kept you informed of the bases activities and what Overlord really is?"

She noted with a hint of suspicion that Miranda hesitated before shaking her head. The commander's eyes narrowed slightly. "Of course not, I know as much as you do."

"I find that hard to be-"

Shepard was cut short as they entered another room, and a terminal that had previously been switched off suddenly came to life. The trio halted as a human face appeared on the screen, what little Shepard could see of his uniform led her to believe he was a scientist. "Thank god, it's good to see a friendly face!"

Shepard had instinctively reached for her pistol, though swiftly removed her hand as the man spoke, he looked pretty harmless, scared witless perhaps but who wouldn't be in this situation. "I take it you're one of the science team?" She asked after a moment, the room appeared empty save a desk, the terminal; it looked more like an office then anything else.

"Yes, I believe I'm the only one still alive." He fell silent for a moment, though Melina didn't interrupt, having lost the rest of his team she didn't blame him for being a little emotional. "Listen, there isn't time to explain, the VI is planning to use the communications dish to beam itself off world! You have to disable the dish before it's to late!"

Shepard held up one hand. "Whoa hold on. VI? Off world, what are you talking about?"

"There isn't time for questions! But…We were working with an experimental VI, and it's out of control. It's taken over the base and anything automated and is planning to use the communications dish to transmit itself off world…Look around you! This is the devastation it's caused with just the research facility alone. Think about what it could do to the galaxy as a whole if it gets loose!"

As he spoke, the commander's gaze shifted towards a previously unnoticed window. In the distance she could see the massive relay moving into position. "That has to be a mile or more away; we'll never make it in time!" She cursed, a fist slamming into the table.

"No, there's a tram system that runs from here to the main comm. tower. Using that you'll get there and still have a few minutes to stop the transmission." She could see him tapping away at a unseen keyboard for a moment. "There. I've unlocked the door, now hurry!"

Shepard nodded, before spinning to face the squad. "Come on! We have to stop that VI."


	12. Chapter Twelve

Shepard didn't like the idea of plunging head first into the darkness of the research facility once again. But the safe haven of the office they'd encountered the mysterious scientist in wouldn't help them in the long run. If they didn't move, and now, then the VI would escape off-world, or so he claimed.

That was one of the two things bothering the commander as she easily hacked the door controls and stepped into the dark and foreboding corridor beyond it. How exactly was the VI going to transmit itself off world? Weren't they constrained to their programming and installed location? She hadn't seen the VI on the Citadel wandering off, so what made this one any different? Maybe that was what they were researching here.

The other thing bothering her was Miranda withholding all this from her. Whoever had sent the message along had taken it from the agent, but it still begged the question as to why she wasn't allowed to know what the real situation was until long after they'd landed.

Shepard pushed the thought from her mind for now as she clicked her Omni-tool light on and scanned the corridor. After scanning the two ways they could go, she picked the left and set off slowly, her two companions close behind.

They couldn't delay for long, she knew that. But she had a feeling a handful of security mechs were the least of their worries in this place. The darkness could have held any number of dangers. Melina's hands tightened their grip on her rifle as she carefully picked her way almost blindly through the blood stained and bullet ridden corridor.

"I know everyone's dead. But this place is to damned quiet." Garrus commented as he swept his light over a patch of wall that was burnt and blackened.

"Tell me about it. You'd think a research facility would be constantly making noise, personal or not the computers and other equipment should still be working." Shepard commented, the power cut was a possibility, but if the door locks still worked, and the few terminals they'd passed still sparked or flickered into life, then that seemed unlikely.

As Shepard swept the corridor with her light, she caught sight of the now familiar green glow that seemed to be stalking them. This time however she picked out the details of a face staring back at her, before it vanished abruptly.

Another glance about the corridor revealed a security camera slowly tracking them. With a growl, she drew her pistol and fired a single shot, the device exploded in a shower of sparks and hit the ground with a bang.

"This place is getting creepier by the minute…"

Luckily they managed to avoid any mechs during the trip to the tram. Miranda naturally took charge of getting it running again, while Shepard and Garrus did their best to get comfortable. The commander's gaze was constantly being drawn to the massive communications dish in the distance.

Why the hell did such a remote outpost have such a sizeable communications station? It didn't make sense to her. This place was either very important, or did more then just research.

She spared a glance across the tram and noted Garrus staring at her. Normally that wouldn't have bothered her, but something about the way he was watching her just made the solider shudder slightly and look away. Luckily her armour hid the actions, save her eyes rapidly turning away.

"How are you holding up commander?" He finally asked. Shepard simply shrugged in response; she knew he wasn't asking about her physical well being. But in truth she wasn't sure how she was feeling anymore.

"Fine." She stated as her gaze shifted back to the dish, it was still aligning itself, they had time. A second later the tram jolted in to motion, Shepard didn't notice.

"We've got a mission to worry about now. We can talk once we put this mess behind us."

* * *

The rest of the trip went by in silence. Once the tram reached the communications tower and stopped, the trio quietly disembarked and checked their weapons. "Disable the comm. tower, kill any mechs that try to stop you." Shepard stated simply as she adjusted the mod on her weapon, the lights on the side blazed crimson as the inferno rounds were loaded.

With a nod she led the way into the base. Much like the previous station however, silence reigned and it appeared a battle had ripped the place apart. The power however was still online here Which was painted a rather grim picture.

Unlike last time when they were stumbling about in the dark, unable to see anything behind their flash lights. Here they could see quite clearly. Everything was laid out before them, from the body that lay by the tram station door to the pieces of mechs and discarded thermal clips that littered the floor.

"Looks like someone put up a hell of a fight here." Shepard commented as she carefully picked up one of the spent clips. "Hmm," The glow was still evident, indicating it was white hot. "These are recent, a few minutes old at best…"

"Someone else is alive?" Miranda pitched in, Melina simply nodded.

"It would seem that way. Maybe their putting up a resistance to keep the VI out of the communications systems." Shepard didn't see any other explanation. It seemed smarter in her mind to evacuate the base entirely if the VI had taken control of the security mechs and systems.

Dropping the spent clip, she brought her rifle up once again and approached the door they led to, her feet easily picking a path between the pieces of mechs and occasional pool of blood. "Strange, why is there so much blood, but no bodies?"

"No one could lose this much and still be alive." Garrus interjected. "Maybe the mechs are moving them somewhere else?"

"We'll know soon enough, I'm sure." Shepard finished the conversation, before tapping the light on the door, it slid open without protest. The room beyond wasn't much different from the corridor, or so it seemed upon first glance.

As the trio advanced however, they soon discovered it was strangely, untouched. A computer terminal in the corner lit up and displayed a handful of files and a indicator asking if they wanted the information purged. The walls and floor were devoid of damage or blood.

"Well that makes a…Change." Shepard commented as she lowered her rifle and scanned the room, aside from a camera in one corner turning to focus on them everything seemed calm, quiet.

Melina felt a chill run through her at the thought, the corridor not ten feet away had been a warzone, why was this room untouched?

A further examination revealed little else, a large table, a few seats. It looked like a conference room or something. Shrugging slightly, she approached the terminal and hit the cancel button on the purge.

"If someone was trying to erase the files, shouldn't we finish the job?" Shepard barely resisted rolling her eyes as Miranda appeared on her shoulder and started second guessing her choice.

"Clearly it's important; therefore I think we should know before it's purged." She responded calmly, her eyes narrowed just slightly as she heard Miranda say something to quietly for her to hear. "If you have a problem with it, say something!" She snapped, the only sound she was greeted by was the faint clicking of heels as the agent moved away from her.

Most of the files were logs. Some were damaged and unusable though a few still seemed to be ion working condition. Shepard shrugged slightly as she opened one of them.

And leapt back a step when the screen suddenly flashed green, a face appeared in place of the file and glared back at the commander, who instinctively raised her rifle. "The hell?"

ITtwas the same one she'd been catching glimpses of throughout the facility, but now it wasn't just appearing and disappearing, it remained in place, the bright glowing eyes darting from her to Miranda, then Garrus and back again.

"I guess that's the VI were trying to stop?" She turned slightly to focus on Miranda, who shrugged slightly.

As she turned back to the monitor with the intention of maybe talking to it, a deafening rush of noise came over the intercom and she dropped her rifle in favour of shielding her ears from the static ridden sound that filled the room. Despite her attempts to protect herself however, it still left her head throbbing from the sudden noise.

The face on the screen shifted from green to red, then vanished a second later. Finally Shepard risked lowering her hands as the noise cut off. "What, the, hell?" She spared another glance over her shoulder; her companions could only shrug slightly.

The terminal was now blank and lifeless; clearly it didn't want them getting the data for some reason. Or it wanted it for itself.

Scooping up her rifle once again, she simply nodded towards the door across from where they'd entered. As they approached however, the light abruptly clicked red and the door locked. "You've got to be kidding me." Shepard growled as she brought up her Omni-tool and started running a bypass to hack the door open.

Melina was only half paying attention to the display, her gaze constantly shifting from her Omni-tool to the doro as the indicator blinked from red to green and back. "Come on, come on…"

As she glanced down she hesitated as a flash of green washed over the display, before it abruptly cut off. "What?" She eyed the door for a moment, it was still red which meant she hadn't finished.

With a growl of frustration, she activated the tool again and started over. Only to stop when the door abruptly opened. "Huh?" Her arm dropped to her side as she studied the pitch black hallway beyond.

This place was just getting creepier by the second.

"You know, for once I'd like to find a hallway that isn't in complete darkness." Garrus mumbled as the squad went about drawing weapons and clicking lights on.

A second later the hallway abruptly lit up as power was restored. The trio exchanged a worried glance, before slowly advancing. "Looks like you got you're wish." Shepard said with a smirk as she scanned the area, her rifle quietly following her gaze.

Like the previous hallway, this one was devoid of damage. It seemed whoever had assaulted the communications center had either been wiped out before this, or had made it through without to much trouble.

"I don't know which is worse, carnage at every turn, or this pristine, clean room environment…" The commander whispered. Her gaze swept the corridor once more as they advanced, and she spotted a window looking out towards the relay dish.

Despite the need to move, she slowed to a halt as she reached it. A hand leapt to her ear as her comm. suddenly activated. "The dish is almost aligned; you don't have much time left!" She recognized the voice as the scientist they'd encountered earlier, though she didn't respond just yet. It was curious to say the least how he could see what she was seeing. Though she guessed he was somewhere nearby and probably watching the comm. center as well.

"Commander, I think you better see this." She spared a glance towards Garrus, whom was watching the comm. tower intently through his sniper rifle. After a moment he handed her the weapon so she could make use of the scope as well.

At first she didn't see the problem, a few mechs patrolled the area but that wasn't surprising, if the VI wanted off world it wasn't likely he'd leave his ticket undefended.

"Little to the left." She shifted her aim slightly, and froze as the real problem was revealed.

A trio of geth were patrolling the area as well. "Geth, damn it!" Zooming in a little further, she picked out the green glow in their optical units. "The VI can control, Geth as well? Hell…"

That wasn't the only problem, shifting her aim again; she spotted two more of the synthetic creatures, and a human wearing a Cerberus uniform. He was on his knees, hands behind his head, obviously a prisoner. "Looks like their taking prisoners…"

One of the geth raised its weapon and took aim at the scientist. "Shit!" Before she could act, she saw a flash and the human collapsed to the deck in a rapidly spreading pool of blood.

Lowering the rifle, she handed it back to Garrus before drawing her own. "We have to shut this place down…" She snarled, before spinning on her heel and setting off down the corridor once again.

"Why capture people, if their just going to execute them regardless?" Garrus asked quietly as he spared another glance out the window before falling into step behind her.

"Maybe it was a warning." Melina commented, her voice quiet and hollow as she contemplated her words even as she spoke them. "He didn't get shot until we were within sight…Maybe the VI was making an example. 'get in my way, and die' or something." She shivered slightly as the door opened without protest, leading into another mess hall.

That thought alone made her nervous, what if they'd been responsible, in a sense, for the scientist's death? She had enough blood on her hands as it was without having to worry about innocent lives being taken due to her actions.

One way or another. She was shutting that son of a bitch down, for good.


	13. Chapter 13

Silence had descended over the group as they picked their way through the darkened corridors once again. After seeing the execution, Shepard had long stopped caring about which door she took or where it lead, the damn VI could drive her into a ambush, and she wouldn't care.

Yet again it was a life she'd failed to save. Admittedly she couldn't have really done anything at the time, but that didn't make the thought any easier to deal with. Her hands trembled slightly as she ran another hack and unlocked the next door. "Were getting close." The commander muttered quietly, her voice barely audible as she swept the room with her rifle and proceeded without a second thought.

"You don't think it's a bad idea, going where the VI says rather then trying to break into the other rooms?" Garrus finally asked as she swept through the lab and began working on the next door.

"Why? Chances are it'll just override any attempt we make, or find some other way to lock us out." The door opened a second later. Shepard ignored the drawn out sigh from the turian as she shouldered her rifle and kept moving.

Several empty rooms later, they finally reached their goal. The final door gave way to a bridge that connected the labs to the communications centre. Shepard inwardly groaned as she studied the path ahead of them.

Aside from a couple of crates here and there, there was no cover between them and the comm. centre. If the VI was smart, there'd be snipers posted to watch the bridge, from what's she'd seen it was the only way to the dish.

"I don't like this…But we don't really have a lot of choice." Melina said her voice surprisingly calm as she shouldered her rifle and began to advance. "Garrus, hold back with you're rifle and keep us covered. Miranda, you're with me."

Both nodded slightly, and Garrus was quick to change weapons as he found a safe place to hunker down and watch the bridge's other side from while Shepard and Miranda carefully jogged from one crate to the next. Each time she reached a safe place, the commander would halt and check the area ahead before proceeding, while she trusted the sniper, she wasn't about to take even the slightest chance.

They'd made it half way when Shepard's radio came to life. "Shepard. Two geth on the catwalk ahead. Doesn't look like they've seen you yet." With a quick hand gesture, the pair ducked into cover, and the commander carefully inched around the low wall she'd hidden behind.

The geth appeared to be on a patrol. Their heads slowly darting left and right as they scanned the bridge and continued on their way, eventually vanishing through a door and out of sight.

Once she was sure they were gone, Shepard and Miranda continued their advance.

Luckily they made it to the other side of the bridge without incident. And Garrus soon joined them. "Any ideas on how long we've got?" Shepard asked as she pressed a finger to her ear.

"I can't tell exactly from here. Though I'd say only about five minutes at best until the transfer is complete." The scientist they'd briefly encountered replied, his voice laced with concern that not even the static that crackled over the comm. could hide.

"Any suggestions on how we shut it down?" Melina continued as she checked her assault rifles ammo counter, and then checked to ensure a grenade was loaded and ready.

"You might be able to hack the system and misalign the dish…Otherwise just shut it down however you can."

Shepard nodded slightly, before slamming her fist into the panel, the door opened without protest, giving way to the first room. Or rather what appeared to be the maintenance deck of the station.

A series of pipes zigzagged across the room, obscuring large sections of it from view, a terminal resided in one corner, it's screen blank, presumably offline. And a number of other random catwalks and maintenance shafts that could have held any number of geth or security forces crowded the small chamber. "Eyes open. Watch for ambushes." Shepard warned, before carefully advancing into the room, one hand idly slid up the side of her rifle and tapped in a command, and the panels along the sides of the gun flared a bright red as the incendiary rounds were loaded.

Carefully picking her way around and through the pipes, Melina had almost made it to the other side of the room, just a few more feet. She was swiftly halted however by the dull whine of servos. A moment later a deep computerized voice reached her ears, and the commander cursed as she scrambled back towards the pipes she'd just vaulted over a moment before. "Online." That single word, and the voice it belonged to, filled her with dread.

Her fears were confirmed a second later as a loud booming footstep shook the room, followed by the clicking of a weapon being armed. Ducking behind the metal, Shepard closed her eyes tightly as she heard a whoosh. Followed by the room shaking again as a rocket struck the ground a few feet away from her. She could feel the heat of the explosion through her shields, which sparked and died a moment later.

The massive YMIR mech's upper body twisted around as a sniper round pinged off it's shields, and a moment later it's arm raised, it's hand split open to reveal the chain-gun hidden beneath, and a second later it unleashed a barrage of bullets that shredded the metal catwalk Garrus had, thankfully managed to evacuate a heartbeat before.

Ignoring the ringing in her ears, Shepard lifted herself up once again and fired a quick burst at the mech, again its shields absorbed the blow, but it drew its attention back to her, giving time for Garrus to reposition, and Miranda as well to find a safe place to shoot from.

The mech didn't even bother ceasing fire, instead it simply shifted it's aim back towards the commander and laid waste to everything in-between the catwalk and the pipes Shepard was hiding behind.

Melina cursed again as she was driven back behind cover, one of the pipes took a hit and burst, a hot flash of steam stung her face, but she ignored it, instead ducking further down to avoid any further damage as she waited for the hailstorm of bullets to cease so she could fire again.

A flash of blue light briefly drew her gaze, and she watched as a blue orb of biotic energy struck the mech and with a flicker, it's shields died. A moment later Garrus took advantage of Miranda's attack and fired a round, which sadly only glanced off it's head and caused the hulking robot to cease fire.

Instead of changing targets however, it simply switched arms and locked onto Shepard with another rocket. Knowing her choice of cover wouldn't hold, she sprung to her feet and broke into a sprint, beeping of the targeting system stopped, and she heard the rocket fire.

The commander only made it a few steps, before she leapt to one side and rolled behind a support beam. She'd barely made it behind the beam before the rocket slammed into the ground less then a foot away and sent her stumbling back, just in time for another burst of chain-gun fire to strike her shields.

Shepard again was forced to seek shelter behind the pillar just as her shields failed, one r two rounds struck her arm and shoulder, but she shrugged them off for now and simply pressed her back firmly against the beam, and silently hoped it wouldn't crack under the bullet storm.

By some miracle, it didn't. And Shepard offered a relieved sigh as the slight flicker on the edge of her vision confirmed her shields were recharging.

And not a moment to soon, as she heard the familiar clunking of footsteps as the mech slowly closed in on her. She could try to relocate, but where could she go? Her gaze snapped left and right as she tried to pick a new position. The cracking of a sniper rifle informed her Garrus was off to her right, and the occasional flash of blue confirmed Miranda was close by, but she couldn't find a suitable location to retreat to where the mech couldn't see her. And she was running out of time…

A heartbeat later, the YMIR's arm slammed into the pillar and Shepard ducked as s shower of dust and rubble struck her head and clung to her hair. Correction, she was out of time. Ignoring the imminent burst of chain-gun fire, she broke into a sprint straight for another section of pipes in a vain attempt to get out of the mech's line of sight.

Bullets struck the ground around her as she skidded to a stop and dropped into a crouch behind the pipes. The mech was already closing in, but she ignored it, instead she waited for the barrage to stop once again, and swiftly stood, her rifle snapping to her shoulder as she opened fire.

The first few bullets glanced off its armour. Though several also cut deep, resulting in several sparks as they cut through the plating. Obviously she'd struck something vital, as the mech stumbled and halted for a few moments. Just long enough for Garrus to put a sniper round through its optics.

"Oh heck." Shepard ducked as the YMIR exploded, the shockwave of the blast ended up knocking her off her feet. Though thankfully her armour absorbed most of the impact.

As she pulled herself upright using a nearby pipe however. The commander winced as pain flared up along her left leg, and a stab of pain in her right shoulder made itself known. Her leg was obviously her still healing wound from the collector base, her shoulder though she swiftly realized was from the chain-gun round that pierced her armour. There would be time for fixing that later however, it wasn't bleeding to heavily, and she had more important things to worry about.

* * *

Luckily the mech had been guarding the main elevator that lead to the control room of the relay. Shepard had to admit, the place was, smaller then she'd anticipated. But that mattered little; they had a job to do.

As the commanders gaze wandered the expansive room, she quirked an eyebrow as Miranda instantly made her way to a terminal and began tapping away at the controls. While she couldn't argue with her trying to help, the fact that she seemed to know exactly where to go was somewhat unnerving. After all, she hadn't been here before, but knew which computer to use...

Pushing the thought aside for now, Melina simply approached and peered over the Cerberus agents shoulder as she worked. "Can you stop it?" She asked after a moment, her gaze shifting to the terminal, she hardly recognized the information scrolling across the screen, luckily it seemed Miranda did, for better or worse.

"The VI's locked me out…I can't shut down the transmission from here." She cursed, before the screen cut out a moment later, the words *corrupted files detected* flashing up briefly in red, before even that was claimed by the sudden wash of darkness.

"We'll have to get up to the dish and try to shut it down directly. There's got to be a way to disable it." Shepard muttered as she set off for the door that connected the control room to a series of catwalks that would take them to the top of the relay dish.

"Come on. Were not going to do anymore good here." She spared a glance at her Omni-tool as she stepped out onto the first catwalk, and cringed as a sudden gust of wind knocked her back a step. This wouldn't be easy. Focusing on the display again, she noted they only had two minutes until the VI connected with it's goal and escaped off world.

Ignoring the precarious nature of the path ahead, Shepard broke into a jog with the others close behind, her boots clanged loudly against the metal steps as she topped the first catwalk, spun on her heel and started up the next one, all intentions of stealth and sneaking set aside in favour of simply getting to the top as fast as possible.

As she reached the top of the dish and instinctively ducked behind a row of power couplings, her head perked up a moment later so she could peer over the top and take in the area. The dish itself was huge, and now she realized they were actually standing  _on_  it. That thought alone made her pause.

"Doctor, how the hell are we supposed to shut this thing down? The computer isn't responding so we have to take it down manually." She pressed a finger to her ear as she tuned out the howling wind, and the loud alarms that suddenly kicked in, likely to warn them the transmission was about to go out and they had to leave.

"You'll have to disable the support struts." The doctor's voice filled her ear. "They each have their own capacitor, try blowing them up." Shepard nodded slightly, before springing over the power cables and breaking into a jog. She could just make out the first capacitor in the distance.

"Got it. This shouldn't take-" She skidded to a halt as several bullets struck the deck just in front of her. "Long…" Cursing her own lack of caution, she started running again, the capacitor was still a fair distance away, but there were a few stray transformers and random pieces of construction they could take cover behind.

She didn't even have a chance to reach the next safe location as a bullet struck her shield and caused her to stumble. That had been a high calibre round, a sniper shot if she had to judge.

A moment later she stopped running and shifted her weight backwards as her momentum propelled her forwards. Her body struck the floor and she slide the final few feet and ground to a stop behind a low wall. Another burst of what she presumed to be assault rifle rounds struck the cover a moment later, the commander winced as a piece of metal was dislodged and struck the side of her face.

Ignoring the stinging sensation that flared up as a result, she briefly peered over her cover and noted several security mechs blindly marching towards her position weapons raised and firing aimlessly in her direction.

In the distance she could see a handful of geth leapfrogging from one piece of cover to the next. One however remained in place, a rifle resting against its shoulder. Before she could blink he fired and her shields flared and died. With a curse, she ducked out of sight as a second round pinged off the wall. "Damn it, Garrus! Take out that damn sniper!" Shepard called out before lifting herself up once again, this time her rifle was at the ready and she fired a short burst which easily ripped a mech in half and showered the one next to it in metal shards and sparks.

Melina ducked again as she heard the distinct crack of a sniper rifle. Though when nothing struck her, or her cover, she propped herself up once again. The geth sniper was gone. A quick glance to one side gave her a brief glimpse of Garrus as he reloaded his rifle. "Got him commander." He called out, before firing again, a second geth crumbled as its optics were shattered by the impact.

Once Shepard was sure her shields had recharged, she stood once again and resumed firing, her shots easily downing mechs and geth alike as they rushed towards her position. Time was running out however, the alarms were growing louder and Melina had little doubt they were mere seconds away from letting the VI escape.

"Miranda!" She called out, the rapid booms of the Cerberus agents heavy pistol cut off a moment later. "Get to the capacitor and disable it!" Miranda didn't argue and swiftly started sprinting towards the target, while Garrus and Shepard kept the VI's minions busy.

Another mech exploded, and a geth responded with a well aimed grenade that forced Melina out of hiding. A second later a burst of assault rifle fire cut her shields down and pierced her shoulder, though she paid it no heed and instead fell into a crouch behind another piece of cover, if she didn't know any better she'd think this place was designed for this very situation…

A loud wailing alarm cut through the battle a second later, the other alerts abruptly ending as this one took priority. Shepard spared a glance towards Miranda, and noted the capacitor was now a smouldering ruin, the protective plating having been withdrawn.

The final geth unit fell as a sniper round struck it and severed its head. Silence followed as the trio reloaded and the commander took in her surroundings. "How many more of the support struts will we need to disable?" She asked quietly, more to herself then anyone else. Already the alerts were starting to pick up in volume again, clearly even the loss of a support unit wasn't enough to delay the transmission for long.

"Damn it! We don't have time to try and find all of them…We'll have to split up." Shepard muttered bitterly, if they ran into anymore geth or mechs, they wouldn't stand a chance out on there own…But at the same time, they couldn't just pick their way across the dish and hope to find all the supports before it was to late.

Despite the rather stupid plan, neither Garrus nor Miranda bothered to argue. Much to Melina's relief. A moment later the trio split up and set off across the dish in search of the remaining supports.

Luckily it seemed either the VI hadn't planned for their presense, or maybe was just slow to react. As Shepard easily found the next capacitor and pressed the switch to remove the security shield without incident.

"Okay, found the next one." A quick burst from her rifle easily overloaded the capacitor. "Dealt with." Another wailing alert was sounded, closely followed by a second a moment later.

"This ones down." Garrus confirmed. "Heading to you now commander."

"Commander, run into resistance over here. Almost at the support…" Shepard barely resisted groaning when the agent spoke, of course, there was always something wasn't there? She was about to set off, when the dish abruptly shuddered.

"Got it! This place is going to come down in a second, you'd better think about moving ma'am!" Miranda warned, the sound of gunfire crackling in the comm. Before Melina could respond, the dish began to sway slightly as the supports holding it up began to falter.

Ignoring the imminent collapse of the ground beneath her feet, she simply focused on Garrus as he jogged towards her. "No, were coming to you. Just hold on."

"There isn't time, this whole thing is about to come down! I'll be fine there's another catwalk here, just need to get through the mechs." Shepard paused for a long moment, before nodding slightly as she waved Garrus towards the bridge that connected it to the main research facility.

"Alright, we'll meet up with you back at the labs." Without waiting, she spun on her heel and started running, the turian right along side her. The groaning of metal was more then enough to spur them into motion. Though Shepard noted it wasn't just the relay dish that was coming down.

Sizeable chunks of the platform above and around them were beginning to buckle as well. And as she ran, a sizeable piece of, something she really didn't have time to think slammed into dish mere feet away, the resulting shockwave almost knocked her off her feet, though by Garrus was quick to grab and steady her before she slipped to far.

"Keep, moving!" She shouted as the dish itself began to buckle and snap. The edge was almost on them, and she realized with mounting dread that the catwalk that should have taken them to safety, had been ripped in half at some point, leaving them with no other alternative but to jump and pray for the best.

And that's exactly what the commander did. Without pausing to think, for she knew she'd reconsider, she leapt over the side and prayed there was something below, and close by that would break her fall.

Thankfully it seemed fate was being kind for once, as a moment later she slammed into a different catwalk, thankfully a safe distance from the relay. Fate wasn't exactly being generous however, as she continued to slide and ended up crashing head first into the wall of the labs.

"Shepard?" The commander groaned quietly as she finally came to, albeit with a hell of a headache. As her eyes cracked open, she was surprised to find Garrus leaning over her, concern written into his features.

"I'm fine, I'm fine stop worrying." She grumbled, before pulling herself up into a sitting position, a hand instinctively moving to rub the back of her head, which naturally still throbbed painfully from her impact with the wall.

"Whatever you say commander." With a offered hand, he pulled Shepard back to her feet, before focusing on the sizeable pile of rubble that was the comm. tower. "Looks like we pulled it off, just in time too."

"Yeah…Any sign of Miranda?" Shepard couldn't help but worry about the Cerberus agent. Despite their differences, she'd come to depend on the woman, somewhat over the course of the mission.

"Nothing yet, though considering how well our, landing went. It wouldn't surprise me if she ended up in a similar mess." Garrus sounded unconvinced, though Melina somehow missed it.

"Probably. Keep an ear on your comm. though." She briefly checked to ensure her own was still working.

Her system check was interrupted a moment alter by the sound of boots on metal. And both whipped around expecting to see Miranda approaching. Instead they were greeted by a unfamiliar face. A balding man in a Cerberus uniform. "Excellent work commander…Though I wish the situation had been easier for you, at least the VI is trapped here for the time being." He commented slowly, his gaze shifting to the ruined communications building.

"Yeah, now I think it's time we get some answers." Shepard recognized the voice more then anything else. The scintist that had sent them on this crazy mission. "Dr Archer I presume?"

He nodded slightly, before gesturing towards the catwalk behind him. "Yes, follow me, and I'll explain everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hate that this story stops here, but sadly I lost my inspiration for it a long time ago and haven't gotten around to coming back to it :(
> 
> Never say die though, maybe one day I'll pick it up again, but for now, I hope anyone that read this enjoyed the ride.

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone that read fics over on Fanfiction.net might recognize this story (But probably not) I uploaded this and several other stories there several years ago, though sadly I lost my confidence for a while and hung up my pen for a while. recently though I've been gaining some confidence and writing again and I hope to have something new to show for it in the near future.
> 
> However I figured before then I might as well reupload my old stories here as a means of learning how posting stories works and to put some stuff out there for people to read, (if they can stomach my terrible fanfic skills :P) while I try to come up with new material.
> 
> Anyway, I hope if anyone reads this they enjoy it, and if not, well, my bad.


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